Feđa Dudić (born 1 February 1983) is a Bosnian 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

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 i ...

who is the 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 Radnički 1923. Born in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, Dudić played for both hometown clubs

FK Sarajevo Fudbalski klub Sarajevo ( sh-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Сарајево; , English language, English: Sarajevo Football Club), is a professional Association football, football Sports club, club based in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosn ...

and Željezničar, as well as other clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. He won the

Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

with

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

in 2002, as well as the Bosnian Cup with Sarajevo in 2005. He was the Bosnian Premier League top goalscorer in the 2009–10 season while playing for

Travnik Travnik ( cyrl, Травник) is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...

. Dudić started his managerial career at GOŠK Gabela in 2017, managing the club until 2018. He became manager of Velež Mostar in 2019, achieving success with them by qualifying the club to the

2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania, with Rom ...

, their first European competition after 33 years. Dudić won the Bosnian Cup with Velež in 2022. Following his success with Velež, Dudić left the club to become manager of Sarajevo in June, where he worked until October 2022. He was appointed manager of Serbian side Radnički 1923 in 2023.

Playing career

Born in

SR Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

, Dudić started his career playing in the youth teams of

, but still young, he moved to Croatia where he became part of the

championship winning squad in the 2001–02 season. He would have a short loan spell with another

side, TŠK Topolovac before returning to Bosnia where he would play for several clubs during the following seasons, namely Sloboda Tuzla, Brotnjo, Sarajevo, with whom he won the 2004–05 Bosnian Cup,

and Željezničar. He also played with

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...

in the Croatian Second League during the 2005–06 season. During the summer of 2010, and having become the 2009–10 Bosnian Premier League top goalscorer with 16 goals, Dudić came to

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

for a trial, however he ended up signing with another Prva HNL side,

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

, where he was a part of the team that finished as a Croatian Cup runner-up 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 ...

cup season. In the summer of 2011, Dudić moved back to Bosnia, signing with newly promoted team GOŠK Gabela, but in the following winter break, newly promoted

side

Novi Pazar Novi Pazar ( sr-cyr, Нови Пазар) is a List of cities in Serbia, city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the urban area has 71,462 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 106,720 inha ...

decided to reinforce their team with players from the

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 ...

, bringing him alongside Admir Raščić. After Novi Pazar, Dudić played for Slavija Sarajevo, Travnik again and Zvijezda Gradačac, before retiring in 2016 at the age of 33.

Managerial career

Early career

After retiring, Dudić became an assistant manager at

in 2016, where he stayed until June 2017.

GOŠK Gabela

On 27 November 2017, Dudić was named new manager of the club that he played in before, GOŠK Gabela, after manager

Slaven Musa Slaven Musa (born 21 June 1971) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. Musa is mostly known for playing for Zrinjski Mostar, spending six years in total at the club, from 1992 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2002. As a manager, ...

resigned. With GOŠK, he finished 7th in the 2017–18 Bosnian Premier League season. In the 2018–19 season, GOŠK started off well under the guidance of Dudić, but after a series of poor results, which culminated with a 0–0 draw against Čelik Zenica, on 26 September 2018, Dudić resigned from the position of manager of GOŠK, after almost a year of him being the manager.

Velež Mostar

2019–20 season

On 5 August 2019, Dudić became the new manager of Velež Mostar. In his first match as the club's manager, Velež tied 0–0 against Sloboda Tuzla away on 10 August 2019, winning their first point in the 2019–20 league season. His first win with Velež came on 17 August 2019, in a 1–0 home league win against

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 ...

. Dudić's first loss as Velež manager was a 2–1 away league loss against

on 24 August 2019. In his first ever Mostar derby, Dudić's Velež beat fierce city rivals Zrinjski Mostar 1–0 at home in a league match on 19 October 2019, marking that Velež's first Mostar derby win in over 5 years. He was also praised by Velež fans for his team's 0–2 away league win against Željezničar on 7 December 2019. Dudić's next big result came on 8 March 2020, when Velež beat Borac Banja Luka 2–1 at home in another league match.

2020–21 season

In the first game of the 2020–21 season on 1 August 2020, Velež handled a tough 3–0 loss against Željezničar, but in the second game, on 8 August, Dudić's team managed to beat city rivals Zrinjski for a second time in a row. On 31 October 2020, Velež got defeated by Zrinjski in the Mostar derby, with Dudić taking the blame. On 28 December 2020, he extended his contract with the club until June 2023. During the 2020–21 season, Dudić managed to make a new record with Velež by not losing 16 league games in a row, following a Mostar derby draw against Zrinjski on 8 May 2021. He finished the season in third, qualifying Velež for the

, their first European competition after 33 years. On 25 May 2021, Dudić was named the Bosnian Premier League Manager of the Season.

2021–22 season

Dudić's Velež opened the 2021–22 season with the Conference League qualifying phase, firstly eliminating semi-professional Northern Irish club

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

. In the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

, his team, surprisingly, eliminated Greek giants

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

. However, in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

, Velež was eliminated by Swedish side

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

, thus putting an end to their European "fairytale". Velež started off the domestic league season well, beating newly promoted side

Posušje Posušje () is a town and municipality in the West Herzegovina Canton, a federal unit of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Name The name Posušje is derived from ''suša'' ( Croatian for drought). Th ...

on 19 July 2021. After beating Posušje, Dudić's team went into a short, three-game winless run, but ended it with a win against Široki Brijeg on 22 August 2021. Two months later, following a new string of poor results, Dudić resigned as Velež's manager after a disappointing league loss against Radnik Bijeljina on 31 October. However, the next day, the club's board rejected this and he stayed as manager. On 19 May 2022, Dudić led Velež to win the first Bosnian Cup title in their history, after a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, following a 0–0 draw against Sarajevo in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Sarajevo

On 2 June 2022, Dudić signed a two-year contract with

, with an option to stay at the club until at least 2025. In his first game in charge, Sarajevo defeated Borac Banja Luka on 24 July 2022. After winning two more league games against Sloga Doboj and Posušje, on 10 August 2022, Dudić's side lost 5–1 to Tuzla City. It was Sarajevo's biggest ever

defeat in history. On 26 August, Sarajevo drew against Željezničar in Dudić's first

Sarajevo derby The Sarajevo derby (, ), also known as the Eternal derby (), is the name given to any football match between rival clubs Željezničar and Sarajevo, the two primary clubs in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most viewed annual sporting ...

as a manager. On 19 October 2022, following a series of poor results, which culminated with a first round cup elimination by Čelik Zenica, Dudić resigned as manager, only four months after taking up the position.

Radnički 1923

On 24 September 2023, Dudić signed a contract with

club Radnički 1923. At the time of his appointment, the team were sitting in bottom after seven league games. On 1 October 2023, he debuted with a 2–0 away win over Železničar Pančevo. Dudić led the side to the Serbian Cup semi-finals, where they were eliminated by

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

following a late game winner. At the end of the season, Radnički managed to finish in fifth place and qualified for the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League second qualifying round.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Zagreb *

: 2001–02 Sarajevo * Bosnian Cup: 2004–05 Travnik * First League of FBiH: 2006–07 Individual * Bosnian Premier League top goalscorer: 2009–10

Manager

Velež Mostar * Bosnian Cup: 2021–22 Individual * Bosnian Premier League Manager of the Season: 2020–21

References

External links