Ilija Lončarević (born 8 October 1944) 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 ...

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and former

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who was most recently the manager of

Croatian Second Football League The Croatian Second Football League (), commonly Druga NL or 2. NL, is the third tier of the Croatian football league system. The league was established in 1991, following the dissolution of the Yugoslav League. It is operated by the Croatian ...

club Kustošija.

Managerial career

Lončarević led Inker Zaprešić to the Croatian Cup title in 1992, but his arguably biggest success in management came when he won the Croatian League with Croatia Zagreb in 1999. In the 1990s, Lončarević was also in charge of several other Croatian teams including NK Zagreb, Marsonia, Slaven Belupo and Hrvatski Dragovoljac. In the summer of 2000, after a short spell with Marsonia, Lončarević was appointed head coach at

Čakovec Čakovec (; ; ; ) is a city in Northern Croatia, located around north of Zagreb, the Croatian capital, and close to the borders with Slovenia and Hungary. Čakovec is both the county seat and the largest city of Međimurje County, the northernmo ...

, who just won their first promotion to the Croatian first division at the time, and led the club through the first part of the 2000–01 season. Under his management, Čakovec surprisingly came in position to fight for the fifth place in the Croatian league for some time during the autumn of 2000; they finished the season in 8th place. Lončarević left Čakovec in the winter break of the 2000–01 season and returned to Dinamo Zagreb for the 2001–02 season. In 2003, Lončarević was appointed head coach of the Libya national football team and led the team through their qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup. He was surprisingly sacked from the post in July 2004, although the team only lost one qualifying match until that time. After this first spell with the Libya national team, Lončarević went on to take charge of Dinamo Zagreb in November 2004 and stayed there until the end of the season. In April 2005, however, Lončarević was appointed head coach of the Libya national team for a second time, after their previous coach, Mohamed El Khemisy, resigned from the post following a 4–1 defeat to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in the World Cup qualifiers. Lončarević then led the Libyan team through their remaining four World Cup qualifiers, but did not have much of success as the team managed two goalless draws and suffered two 1–0 defeats. Libya finished fourth in their group, 10 points behind the group winners

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. Despite the unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign, Lončarević remained in charge of the Libyan team for the

2006 African Cup of Nations The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt, from 20 January to 10 February. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split in ...

. However, after Libya lost to Egypt and Ivory Coast in their first two group matches at the tournament, chairman of the

Libyan Football Federation The Libyan Football Federation (; abbreviated as LFF) is the governing body of association football, football in Libya. It was founded in 1962, affiliated to FIFA in 1964 and to Confederation of African Football, CAF in 1965. It organizes the Liby ...

, Gamal Al Gaafari, announced that the coach will be relieved of his duties after the last group match against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which ended in a goalless draw. Since November 2006, Lončarević had been in charge of Croatian first division team

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

. The team finished sixth in the league during his first season there and in May 2007 he signed a contract to end with the finish of the 2008–09. In his second season with Osijek, in 2007–08, the team finished third in the league and qualified for the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In summer 2009 Lončarević was put on charge of KF Tirana champions of Albanian Superliga. However, on 6 October 2009, barely 5 weeks after the start of the Albanian Superliga, Lončarević gave his resignations without citing any reasons why he did that. On 8 March 2021, he was appointed head coach again at Inter Zaprešić, today a Croatian second division team. He resigned at Kustošija in October 2022.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Inter Zaprešić * Croatian Cup:

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Marsonia * Druga HNL – North: 1993–94 * Druga HNL: 1999–2000 Slaven Belupo *Druga HNL – North: 1995–96 Dinamo Zagreb *

Prva HNL 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 ...

: 1998–99 *Croatian Cup:

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Tirana * Albanian Super Cup:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

References

External links

*
BBC article on Ilija Lončarević
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loncarevic, Ilija 1944 births Living people Yugoslav football managers Croatian football managers NK Zagreb managers NK Inter Zaprešić managers NK Marsonia managers NK Slaven Belupo managers HNK Orijent managers NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers Libya national football team managers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations managers NK Osijek managers NK Lokomotiva Zagreb managers KF Tirana managers HNK Gorica managers HAŠK managers Croatian Football League managers Kategoria Superiore managers Croatian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Libya Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Libya Expatriate football managers in Albania Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Albania