Miodrag Ješić ( sr-Cyrl, Миодраг Јешић, ; 30 November 1958 – 8 December 2022) was a Serbian

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

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 ...

Playing career

Born in Osečenica, Ješić played for Partizan between 1974 and 1985, taking part in 342 matches and scoring 81 goals in all competitions. Between 1985 and 1989 he represented Altay SK, where he recorded 136 matches and 29 goals, and finished his career at

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

in 1989–90 with 37 matches and 9 goals in total. Ješić was immensely disliked amongst the Fenerbahçe supporters because they viewed him as responsible for an injury suffered by Rıdvan Dilmen in 1990 during a league match between Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor. Dilmen never fully recovered despite undergoing sixteen operations, and eventually had to retire in 1995 at Fenerbahçe after painful years of injuries. Ješić had also accumulated a record number of bookings in his tenure in

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

. Opponents claimed that he also injured many players in Turkey and gave him the nickname of "Kasap Yeşiç", which means "Ješić the Butcher." For the Yugoslavia national team, he played in eight games and scored twice.

Coaching career

As a manager, Ješić began his career at

FK Obilić Fudbalski klub Obilić (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Обилић) is a Serbian football club based in Vračar, a neighbourhood of Belgrade. It was named after medieval Serbs, Serbian hero Miloš Obilić, a legendary 14th-century ...

in 1994, earning promotion to the

First League of FR Yugoslavia The First League of Serbia and Montenegro () was the top football league of Serbia and Montenegro, before the country's dissolution in 2006. The league was formed as the First League of FR Yugoslavia following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, ef ...

, and then managed several other Serbian teams, including

OFK Beograd OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English language, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club''), also known in English as OFK Belgrade and currently referred to as OFK ...

and his native Partizan, that, during his period at the helm, scored 111 goals in a single season, a club record. He also recorded wins over Flora (6–0, 4–1) and Rijeka (3–1, 3–0) in UEFA Champions League qualifiers. After coaching Tunisian side CS Sfaxien in 2000–01 and winning the Arab Champions League, he was at the helm of Turkish club Altay in 2002 and moved to Bulgaria in 2002 to manage

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia 1913 () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground is the Stadion Aleksandar Sh ...

and then Iranian Pegah Gilan, after which he became the manager of

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

. During this period he became a Champion of Bulgaria and recorded a win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 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 ...

qualifying phase, also eliminating

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. Voted coach no. 1 for season 2004–05 by Bulgarian sport newspaper. In May 2006 he became the coach of Partizan for the second time in his coaching career. However, following a disappointing first half of the season, he left the club in January 2007. Since November 2007 he was coaching Litex Lovech. With him Litex won the Bulgarian Cup. In June 2008, he signed with Romanian

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

newcomers CS Otopeni and following a series of defeats his agreement was terminated early on 18 August 2008. In September 2008, he signed a one-year contract with

Montenegrin First League The Montenegrin First League (Montenegrin language, Montenegrin: ''Prva crnogorska fudbalska liga'' — ''Prva CFL'' — ''1. CFL''; ), referred to as the Meridianbet 1. CFL for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, ...

team

FK Budućnost Podgorica Fudbalski Klub Budućnost Podgorica (Cyrillic: Будућност Подгорица, , ) is a Montenegro, Montenegrin professional association football, football club from Podgorica, Montenegro. It is competing in the Montenegrin First League. ...

. In July 2009, he signed a one-year contract with Libyan First League team

Al-Ittihad Tripoli Al-Ittihad Sports Club () is a professional football (soccer), football club based in Bab Ben Gashier, Tripoli, Libya. They have won the Libyan Premier League 18 times, the Libyan Cup 7 times and the Libyan SuperCup 11 times. Al-ittihad reached t ...

. On 22 September 2009, Al Ittihad won the Libyan Super Cup, beating Tarsana 3–2. On 16 June 2010, Ješić was appointed to the manager of Changsha Ginde replacing Hao Wei. On 19 June 2011, he was named as Shahrdari Tabriz F.C.'s new head coach replacing Hamid Derakhshan but he was sacked by the club on 24 December 2011. On 24 June 2012, he was named as

Saudi Professional League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

side

Najran Najran ( '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, wi ...

's new head coach. On 7 January 2013, Ješić was reappointed

manager, replacing

Stoycho Mladenov Stoycho Dimitrov Mladenov (; born 12 April 1957 in Ploski, Blagoevgrad Province) is a Bulgarian former football player and manager. He has 212 matches and 107 goals for CSKA. With the club he won the national title 6 times, 4 as a player and ...

, but was surprisingly released from his duties on 11 March 2013, after just two games in charge of the team, one of which was won. In late 2013, he was close to becoming the new

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

head coach. On 31 March 2014 Ješić was appointed head coach of Litex Lovech and was assisted by Darko Obradović. On 14 June 2017, he was named as

side Al-Ettifaq's coach. He was fired on 10 December 2017. On 31 August 2019, the Egyptian club Ismaily SC appointed Ješić as the team's new head coach, succeeding Mahmoud Gaber. On 7 July 2022, Saudi First Division League side Al-Shoulla appointed Ješić as the team's new manager. On 29 September 2022, he was sacked after five matches.

Personal life and death

Ješić was married to Irena, with whom he had a daughter named Tara. In 2001, while coaching CS Sfaxien, his daughter Jelena died in a

traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

at the age of nineteen. Ješić, aged 64, died on 8 December 2022 in a car accident near the town of

Ruma Ruma (; ) is a town and municipality in the Srem District of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2022, the town has a population of 27,747, while the municipality has a population of 48,621. History Traces of organized human life ...

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honors

Player

Partizan *

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First League ( Bosnian: Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Прва савезна лига у фудбалу, Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, , , , , ) was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ...

: 1982–83

Manager

CS Sfaxien * Arab Champions League: 2000 CSKA Sofia *

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 ...

: 2004–05 *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

: 2006 Litex Lovech *

: 2008 * Bulgarian Supercup: 2007, 2008 Al-Ittihad Tripoli * Libyan Premier League: 2008–09, 2009–10 * Libyan Cup: 2009 * Libyan Super Cup: 2009, 2010 Yangon United *

Myanmar National League The Myanmar National League (abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which consisted only of 14 Yangon-based football clubs, with eight profession ...

: 2015

References

External links