Srečko Katanec (; born 16 July 1963) is a Slovenian professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who is the manager of the Uzbekistan national team. At international level, he was capped for both the

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

national teams. A former

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, who was also capable of playing as a defender, Katanec is regarded as one of the greatest Slovenian footballers of all time, having represented Yugoslavia at the 1984 and 1988

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

and the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being ...

. After Slovenian independence, Katanec made five appearances for the newly formed Slovenia national team before retiring from professional football. During his club career, Katanec won a Yugoslav League championship with

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

and was a runner-up of the 1988–89 UEFA Cup with

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

. In his five-year spell with Sampdoria, he won the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

championship, the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

and the European Cup Winners' Cup, as well as finishing as a runner-up in the

1992 European Cup Final The 1992 European Cup Final was a football match held on 20 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Sampdoria of Italy and Barcelona of Spain. Barcelona won the game 1–0 after extra time, thanks to a Ronald Koeman free kick, to record ...

, losing to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Under his management, Slovenia qualified for its first-ever

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

and the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

in 2000 and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, respectively.

Playing career

Katanec began playing football at the age of seven with

NK Ljubljana Nogometni klub Ljubljana ( en, Ljubljana Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Ljubljana or simply Ljubljana, was a Slovenian football club based in the capital city of Ljubljana. The club was established in 1909 and dissolved in 2005. H ...

. In 1981, he joined Olimpija; in 1985, he joined

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinam ...

; while the next year, he signed with Partizan and was a Yugoslav champion in 1987. In 1988, Katanec joined

in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

. The club reached the

1989 UEFA Cup Final The 1989 UEFA Cup Final was an association football tie played on 3 May 1989 and 17 May 1989 between Napoli of Italy and Stuttgart of West Germany. Captained by Diego Maradona, Napoli won the two-legged final 5–4 on aggregate to win their first ...

, but lost to

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

's Napoli. Katanec played just one season for Stuttgart. In 1989, he signed for Italian

side Sampdoria, where he won the European Cup Winners' Cup in his first season. In 1991, Sampdoria won the '' Scudetto'' as Serie A champions, while the

next year "Next Year" is a song released as the last single from the third Foo Fighters (band), Foo Fighters' album ''There Is Nothing Left to Lose''. History A shorter version (running at just 3:21 compared to the original's 4:36) was released as a s ...

, the club reached the

, losing to

. In 1994, he also won the

with Sampdoria under manager

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; born 5 February 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player. After an unassuming playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 ...

. Katanec was a member of the Yugoslavia national team for the 1984 European Championship in France, but he has fonder memories of 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where Yugoslavia team won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

. He was playing successfully in the qualifying round for 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy so he became the third Slovenian to play at a World Cup, where he appeared in three of Yugoslavia's five matches. These would be his last three caps for Yugoslavia. Altogether, he appeared in 31 matches and scored 5 goals. Katanec played five more matches (and scored a goal) for the independent Slovenia national team, but appeared in only one official match. That was a qualifying round for the 1996 European Championship in England, on 7 September 1994 in

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava sta ...

against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Soon after, his contract with Sampdoria expired and he finished his football playing career.

Managerial career

Between 1996 and 1997, Katanec was an assistant manager of Drago Kostanjšek at the Slovenia under-21 team. In December 1997, he became a head coach of Gorica, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract. In July 1998, he was announced as the Slovenian national team manager. With Slovenia, he qualified for the 2000 UEFA European Championship after eliminating

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

in the qualifying play-offs, which was the country's first-ever appearance at the major tournament. At the tournament, Slovenia earned draws against

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

, and lost to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. Slovenia also managed to qualify for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, where they lost all three matches against Spain,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

. After the first game, Katanec had a huge argument with the team's star player

Zlatko Zahovič Zlatko Zahovič (; born 1 February 1971) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. After making a name for himself in Europe in Portugal, most notably with Porto and Benfica where he amassed Primeira L ...

, who was sent home. He resigned immediately after the World Cup. On 2 November 2002, he became the new manager of

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a numbe ...

. Under Katanec's command, Olympiacos played worse than expected, and on 7 February 2003 the club terminated his contract with immediate effect due to poor performances and a bad atmosphere in the team. In 2004, Katanec was a candidate to become the national team manager of

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

; however, Zlatko Kranjčar was chosen instead of him. On 17 February 2006, Katanec was appointed as Macedonia's head coach for the

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

qualifiers. Following a mixed set of results in the qualifying campaign for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, including a 1–0 win against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and a 4–0 loss to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, Katanec resigned from the position on 6 April 2009. On 23 June 2009, he was presented as a new head coach of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

national team. He was sacked on 6 September 2011 after two successive defeats in the third round of qualifiers for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from ...

. On 31 December 2012, he accepted the offer from the

Football Association of Slovenia The Football Association of Slovenia ( sl, Nogometna zveza Slovenije or NZS) is the governing body of football in Slovenia. It organizes the first division (1. SNL), second division (2. SNL), third division (East and West), Slovenian Cup, S ...

to become the manager of Slovenia for the second time, and was officially appointed on 4 January 2013. He resigned in October 2017 after failing to qualify for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

. On 4 September 2018, Katanec was appointed as head coach of the

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

on a three-year contract. His first major competition was the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, where he managed to achieve what he had failed with Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates, by reaching the knockout stages in a major tournament for the first time, as his Iraq reached the round of 16 before losing to the eventual champions

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

1–0. Under his management, Iraq also achieved a notable 2–1 win over neighbour

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, as well as guiding Iraq to the third round of AFC qualifiers, but due to conflict with the federation over six months of unpaid salaries, Katanec departed as coach in July 2021. On 27 August 2021, Katanec was appointed as head coach of

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

on a four-year contract.

Personal life

Katanec was born in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

to Croat parents from Međimurje. He has two sons, Svit Oliver and Ian Oskar.

Career statistics

Club

Managerial

Honours

Player

Partizan *

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League (Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

: 1986–87 VfB Stuttgart *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

runner-up: 1988–89 Sampdoria *

: 1990–91 *

: 1993–94 * Supercoppa Italiana: 1991 * Cup Winners' Cup: 1989–90 * European Cup runner-up: 1991–92

References

External links

Srečko Katanec
at the

website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Katanec, Srecko 1963 births Living people Footballers from Ljubljana Yugoslav footballers Slovenian footballers Slovenian people of Croatian descent Association football central defenders Association football midfielders NK Ljubljana players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players FK Partizan players VfB Stuttgart players U.C. Sampdoria players Yugoslav First League players Bundesliga players Serie A players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Slovenian expatriate footballers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Slovenian football managers ND Gorica managers Slovenia national football team managers Slovenian expatriate football managers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in Greece Olympiacos F.C. managers Super League Greece managers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in North Macedonia Expatriate football managers in North Macedonia North Macedonia national football team managers Slovenian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Iraq Iraq national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Uzbekistan Uzbekistan national football team managers Yugoslavia international footballers Slovenia international footballers Dual internationalists (football) Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Olympic medalists in football Olympic bronze medalists for Yugoslavia Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1984 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 managers 2002 FIFA World Cup managers 2011 AFC Asian Cup managers 2019 AFC Asian Cup managers