Ante Šimundža (born 28 September 1971) is a Slovenian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

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who is the manager of

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

club

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football leagu ...

Club career

Šimundža started his career at hometown club Železničar Maribor at the age of eleven, and moved to

NK Maribor Nogometni klub Maribor () is a Slovenian professional Association football, football club based in Maribor, Slovenia. It competes in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the top tier of the Football in Slovenia#League system, Slovenian football league system ...

after Slovenia's independence in 1991. He stayed there for six seasons, scoring 64 league goals in 170 appearances. He played for a number of different foreign clubs between 1997 and 1998, however, plagued by constant ankle injuries he soon returned to Maribor. There he was an important part of Maribor's qualification to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

during the 1999–2000 season. He was the scorer of the winning goal in the first round of the group stage when Maribor defeated

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

1–0, which is to date the only victory of any Slovenian club in this phase of the competition. In 2001, he again moved abroad and played for

La Louvière La Louvière (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pie ...

, before returning to his native country and finishing his professional career with Aluminij and

Šmartno ob Paki Šmartno ob Paki () is a settlement in the lower Paka Valley in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Šmartno ob Paki. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. It is now included in the Savinja Statistical Regio ...

. Šimundža has made a total of 256

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

appearances, scoring 87 goals in the process. Considered a Maribor club legend, he is tied with Gregor Židan as a player with the most appearances for the club during the 1990s.

International career

Šimundža made three appearances for the Slovenia national team between 1993 and 1999.

Managerial career

Šimundža began his coaching career at his hometown club Železničar Maribor, where he was coaching youth selections. He started his senior coaching career in 2007, when he was appointed as an assistant coach of Pavel Pinni at

Celje Celje (, , ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. Th ...

. In 2008, he became an assistant of

Darko Milanič Darko Milanič (born 18 December 1967) is a Slovenian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. As a player, Milanič represented both Yugoslavia national football team, Yugoslavia and Slov ...

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

. He was part of Maribor's sports department until 2011 when he was selected as a head coach of Mura 05. His season with Mura 05 was impressive and he turned the team around, changing it from a relegation contender to the eventual

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

competitions qualifier, as the club finished third during the 2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga season. By the end of his first season as head coach, he was nominated for the best coach in the league. He then accepted an offer from Austrian side GAK, signing with the club in June 2012. However, the club went bankrupt a few months later and Šimundža returned to Mura 05 in early 2013. After the 2012–13 season, Mura 05 also went bankrupt, and Šimundža took over the

Slovenian Second League The Slovenian Second Football League (), also known by the abbreviation 2. SNL, is the second highest Association football, football league in Slovenia. The league was formed in 1991 and is operated by the Football Association of Slovenia. Format ...

side Aluminij in June 2013. In September 2013, Šimundža was appointed as the new manager of Slovenian champions Maribor. With Maribor, he won two national titles (2013–14 and 2014–15), and also qualified for the group stages of the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...

. He resigned in August 2015 after losing 3–0 at home against Maribor's biggest rivals, Olimpija Ljubljana. In June 2017, Šimundža once again took charge at Mura. With the club, he won the 2019–20 edition of the

Slovenian Football Cup The Slovenian Football Cup (, ) is the top knockout tournament of Slovenian football and the second most important football competition in Slovenia after the Slovenian PrvaLiga championship. The cup was established in 1991 following the breakup o ...

, clinching their first major trophy in 25 years. The following year, Mura became the Slovenian champion for the first time after winning the

2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga was the 30th edition of the Slovenian PrvaLiga since its establishment in 1991. The season began on 22 August 2020 and ended on 22 May 2021. NK Celje, Celje were the defending champions, having won their first tit ...

season. In the last round of the season, Šimundža defeated his former club Maribor to win the title. After four years at the club, he left by mutual consent in December 2021. On 3 January 2022, Šimundža joined

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

club

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

as their new head coach. He led the team to its eleventh consecutive league title in the 2021–22 season, before being sacked on 7 March 2023 following a 1–0 home defeat against Pirin Blagoevgrad. On 3 October 2023, Šimundža returned to Maribor after eight years and signed a contract until the end of the 2025–26 season, replacing outgoing manager Damir Krznar. On 24 December 2024, he was named manager of Polish club

. Tasked with avoiding relegation, with the team placed last and eight points away from safety after 18 games, Šimundža signed a six-month contract. Despite Śląsk's form improving under Šimundža, the club finished the season in 17th place and was demoted to

. On 28 May 2025, he extended his deal with the club for another year.

Personal life

Šimundža was born in

, present day Slovenia, as the youngest of two children, with his sister being six years older than him. His father was a Croat from

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

and his mother a Slovene from Kidričevo. He is married and has two sons, Luka and Jure, who were named after their grandfathers.

Honours

Manager

Maribor * Slovenian First League: 2013–14, 2014–15 *

Slovenian Supercup The Slovenian Supercup () was a football match played between the Slovenian PrvaLiga champions and the Slovenian Cup winners. Prior 2007, the match was held only twice, in 1995 and 1996. The competition was resurrected in 2007 and was held annual ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Mura *Slovenian First League: 2020–21 *

: 2017–18 * Slovenian Cup: 2019–20 Ludogorets Razgrad *

: 2021–22 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual *Slovenian First League Manager of the Year: 2018–19, 2023–24

References

External links

Ante Šimundža
at

ÖFB The Austrian Football Association (; ÖFB) is the governing body of Association football, football in Austria. It organises the football league, Austrian Bundesliga, the Austrian Cup and the Austria national football team, as well as its Austria w ...