Dragan Skočić (born 3 September 1968) is a Croatian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who is the manager of Iranian club

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

. Skočić played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

in Croatia, Spain and the UAE for

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

, Compostela,

Novalja Novalja () is a town on the north of the island of Pag in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. In recent times, Novalja has become famous because of the Zrće Beach. History The earliest settlers on the island were an Illyrian tribe that ca ...

and Al-Ittihad Kalba.

Playing career

Skočić, a

, played professional club football in Croatia for

and

NK Novalja NK Novalja is a Croatian football club based in the town of Novalja in the north of the island of Pag. Honours * Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga (), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croati ...

, in Spain for

and Compostela, and in the UAE for Al-Ittihad Kalba. He was the first player from the Croatian football league who went abroad to play professionally.

Coaching career

Early career

After his playing career, Skočić went on to complete the Football Academy at the Croatian Football Academy and the Coach Education and Training Department at the Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology, receiving an UEFA-PRO Coach diploma and a Professional Bachelor of the Coaching Profession.

Rijeka

He became manager of his hometown club,

, in 2005. Skočić secured one trophy for the club, winning the

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...

for the 2005–06 season.

Interblock Ljubljana

In 2007, he became the head coach of the Slovenian club

Interblock Ljubljana Nogometni klub IB 1975 Ljubljana, known simply as NK IB 1975 Ljubljana, is a Slovenian football club based in Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , ima ...

, while the club was in a difficult situation on the league scale. Only two years after the club was founded and under the management of Skočić, the club achieved outstanding results in the

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 ...

. Not only did they manage to stay in the first league, but they also won two trophies in the 2007–08 season, the

Slovenian Cup Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

and a

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

Al Arabi

Skočić took a year long sabbatical from coaching following his time at Interblock, and in the 2009–10 season, he took over the management of the Al-Arabi club in Kuwait. Under his leadership as head coach, the club played in two finals, the

Crown Prince Cup The Saudi Crown Prince's Cup () was the oldest Saudi Arabian annual cup competition. History The cup was the oldest and first domestic football competition in Saudi Arabia; the first edition was held in 1956–57; five editions were played betwe ...

and the Federation Cup. Also under Skočić, Al-Arabi played in the

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

quarter-finals.

Al Nassr

Following Kuwait, in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season, Skočić was engaged by the

Al Nassr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

football club from

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, one of the most prominent football clubs in the Arab world. Under Skočić, Al Nassr qualified for the third round of the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

, after having played a successful season of competitions within the group. On 25 May 2011, he was sacked after a disappointing 4–1 loss to

2010 AFC Champions League The 2010 AFC Champions League was the 29th edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 8th under the current AFC Champions League title. The final was held at the National ...

finalists Zob Ahan, and was replaced by Portuguese boss

Eurico Gomes Eurico Monteiro Gomes (born 29 September 1955), known simply as Eurico as a player, is a Portuguese former professional football central defender and manager. He began his career at Benfica, later appearing for Sporting CP and Porto; he becam ...

Return to Rijeka

In March 2012 Skočić returned to take over the management of his hometown club Rijeka by replacing Ivo Ištuk as head coach, and became the third coach to take charge of the club in the 2011–12 Prva HNL season. Skočić inherited a defensively frail side that was 2 points off the relegation zone and was tasked with saving the team from relegation. Upon a 2-0 defeat to

Cibalia Hrvatski nogometni klub Cibalia, commonly known as Cibalia Vinkovci or simply Cibalia, is a Croatian football club from the town of Vinkovci in eastern Croatia. Cibalia currently play in the Prva NL, Croatia's second-tier league. Their stadium ...

, the club fell to the 12th place in the league. After just 43 days in charge, Skočić was relieved of his position, following a series of poor results, and was replaced by his assistant,

Mladen Ivančić Mladen Ivančić may refer to: * Mladen Ivančić (footballer) (born 1970), Croatian former football defender and manager * Mladen Ivančiċ (film promoter) Mladen Ivančiċ (born in 1955) is a New Zealand film official. He worked for the Ne ...

Malavan

On 26 May 2013, Skočić was announced as head coach of

Malavan Malavan Bandar Anzali Football Club (, ''Bāšgāh-e Futbāl-e Malavān-e Bandar-e Anzali'') is an Iranian football club based in Bandar-e Anzali, Iran. It currently won Iran's second league, the Azadegan League and came back to Persian Gulf P ...

for the upcoming season. He signed a two-year contract with the club. He led the club to the seventh place, their best league finish since 2005.

Foolad

On 23 May 2014, Skočić was named as new head coach of

Iran Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Premier League (, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is a professional association football league in Iran and the highest level of the Iranian football league s ...

title-holders Foolad, on a one-year contract, replacing Hossein Faraki who resigned on the following day. In May 2015, Skočić received the award for coach of the month and signed a two-year contract extension to keep him at the club until July 2017. In November 2015 after poor scores with the club, Skočić was linked with the vacant head coach position at Sepahan F.C. but the job went to his compatriot,

Igor Štimac Igor Štimac (; born 6 September 1967) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. In his playing career, Štimac had three spells with Hajduk Split and also played for Cádiz in Spain, and for Derby County and West Ham Un ...

. After an unsuccessful transfer to Sepahan, he remained as Foolad's head coach according to his contract. He left the club on 1 June 2016.

Khooneh be Khooneh Babol

On 16 January 2018 he became manager of F.C. Khooneh be Khooneh (Rayka Babol) replacing formerly resigned

Javad Nekounam Javad Nekounam (; born 7 September 1980) is an Iranian Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a midfielder. He holds the record for the most appearances for the Iran national football tea ...

. He soon went on a streak by getting 13 points out of his first 5 games and also leading the second tier team into

Hazfi Cup Hazfi Cup (, ) formerly known as Pahlavi Cup () is an Iranian knockout football competition held annually by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian Football League, Iranian football league was not held during the 1980s, h ...

's final.

Sanat Naft

In July 2019 he became manager of Sanat Naft.

Iran national team

On 6 February 2020, Skočić was named head coach of the Iran national team. He managed to take Iran to the 2022 World Cup as the winner of Group A by scoring 25 points out of 10 matches in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers and set the best performance of the

Iran national football team The Iran national football team (), recognised as IR Iran by FIFA since 2018, represents Iran in men's international senior Association football, football and is governed by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI). At the cont ...

in the World Cup qualifiers. He was replaced as the Iranian national team manager on 7 September 2022.

Croatia national under-21 team

On 14 April 2023, Dragan Skočić was appointed as the manager of the Croatia national under-21 team.

Tractor

In July 2024 he became manager of Iranian club

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

;Las Palmas *

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

: 1992–93 ;Compostela *

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

: 1993–94

Manager

;Rijeka *

: 2005–06 ;Interblock Ljubljana *

: 2007–08 *

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 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

;Khoone be Khoone *

Runner-up: 2017–18 Tractor *

Persian Gulf Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Iran Premier League (, ''Lig-e bartar-e Irân''), is a professional association football league in Iran and the highest level of the Iranian football league s ...

: 2024–25

References

External links