Dean Klafurić (born 26 July 1972) is a Croatian 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 ...

who is the manager of

Bosnian Premier League The Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina (; ; sr-Cyrl, Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), officially known as the Wwin League of Bosnia and Herzegovina for sponsorship purposes, is the top tier football leagu ...

club

Široki Brijeg Široki Brijeg () is a city and the regional capital of West Herzegovina Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. the town itself had a population of 6,149 and the municipality of 28,929. Name ...

Managerial career

Early career

Klafurić started working as a

in Udarnik in 2005. He accepted the place of manager of the Croatia women's national team in 2009. In 2012, Klafurić was sacked as manager. He then started working in the Dinamo Zagreb Academy. On 16 April 2018, Klafurić took over the caretaker manager role at Polish club

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

after compatriot Romeo Jozak got fired. Klafurić would go on to win the domestic cup and a domestic league title double. On 4 June 2018, he was appointed as the manager of Legia Warsaw, before getting sacked on 1 August 2018. Klafurić later worked as manager of Hrvatski Dragovoljac, Cypriot side

Ethnikos Achna Ethnikos Achna Football Club (), commonly known as Ethnikos Achna, or simply Ethnikos, is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional Association football, football club based in the village of Dasaki Achnas. Founded in 1968, the club currently plays in the ...

and

Slaven Belupo Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo (), often referred to as Slaven Belupo, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of Croatia. They play their home matches at Gradski stadion in Koprivnica. They play in ...

Budapest Honvéd

On 24 October 2022, Klafurić was appointed manager of

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

club

Budapest Honvéd Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He managed his first Budapest Honvéd match against Fehérvár, losing 1–0 at the

Bozsik Aréna Bozsik Aréna is a multi-purpose stadium in Budapest, Hungary. It is primarily used for football matches and it is the home stadium of Nemzeti Bajnokság II club Budapest Honvéd F.C. Opening on 24 July 2021, it is named after Hungary footballer ...

on 29 October 2022.

Velež Mostar

On 30 August 2023,

side Velež Mostar appointed Klafurić as manager on a two-year deal. His first match in charge was a 4–2 away win against Igman Konjic on 16 September 2023. Klafurić suffered his first defeat as Velež manager against

Borac Banja Luka Fudbalski klub Borac Banja Luka (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Бopaц Бања Лука, ) is a Bosnian Serb professional football club, based in the city of Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the main ...

on 1 October 2023. In his first ever

Mostar derby The Mostar derby () is a football rivalry in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina between HŠK Zrinjski and FK Velež. The derby took place for the first time in 1922 and is the oldest major football derby in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Mostar clubs ...

, Klafurić's side were defeated by Zrinjski on 18 October 2023. He led the club to a 3–0 home win against Zrinjski on 13 November 2023, Velež's first derby win in three years. He finished the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

with Velež in third place, qualifying for the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League first qualifying round. On 17 June 2024, it was announced by Velež that Klafurić had surprisingly left the club by mutual consent.

TSC

On 1 July 2024, Klafurić was announced as manager of

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League (), also known as Mozzart SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Serbia and the highest level of the Serbian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a sys ...

club TSC. The club had qualified for the UEFA Europa League play-off by finishing third in the national league in the previous season. TSC was drawn to play against

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

in the play-off in August, and went on to lose 8–1 on aggregate, to drop down to the

2024–25 UEFA Conference League The 2024–25 UEFA Conference League was the fourth season of the UEFA Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. From this season, the competition was renamed from the UEFA Europa Conference League to the ...

. However, following a string of poor results, which saw him win only two games in the opening five league matches of the season, Klafurić resigned on 30 August 2024.

Široki Brijeg

Klafurić returned to the Bosnian Premier League in December 2024, having been revealed as manager of

on 20 December. His first match in charge was a 1–0 home win against GOŠK Gabela in a

Bosnian Cup The Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kup Bosne i Hercegovine, Куп Босне и Херцеговине) is a knock-out football competition contested annually by clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The winner ...

game on 8 February 2025.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Legia Warsaw *

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

: 2017–18 *

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

: 2017–18 Individual *Ekstraklasa Coach of the Month: May 2018

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klafuric, Dean 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Zagreb Croatian football managers Association football managers by women's national team GNK Dinamo Zagreb non-playing staff Al-Nassr FC non-playing staff HNK Gorica managers Legia Warsaw non-playing staff Legia Warsaw managers NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac managers Ethnikos Achna FC managers NK Slaven Belupo managers Budapest Honvéd FC managers FK Velež Mostar managers FK TSC managers NK Široki Brijeg managers Croatian Football League managers Cypriot First Division managers Nemzeti Bajnokság I managers Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina managers Serbian SuperLiga managers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in Poland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Hungary Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate football managers in Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Bosnia and Herzegovina Expatriate football managers in Serbia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Croatia women's national football team