Nikola Jurčević (born 14 September 1966) 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 ...

manager and former player.

Playing career

International

He made his debut for

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in a December 1990

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, coming on as a 66th-minute substitute for Ivan Cvjetković, and earned a total of 19 caps (2 unofficial), scoring 2 goals. Since Croatia was still officially part of Yugoslavia at the time, his first two games were unofficial. His final international was a December 1996 friendly 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 ...

Managerial career

Jurčević started as a manager of NK Zagreb in 2002, but a year later he became the manager for

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

. He celebrated the

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 ...

and Croatian Cup in 2004. Later, he managed

NK 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 ...

. He also worked as an assistant manager for the Croatia national team, assisting his former international teammates

Slaven Bilić Slaven Bilić (; born 11 September 1968) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. Bilić, who played as a defender, began his career in 1988 with his hometown club Hajduk Split, later having successful spells with Karls ...

and

Aljoša Asanović Aljoša Asanović (born 14 December 1965) is a Croatian football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He was regarded as one of the best players in the Yugoslav First League, emerging as one of five top scorers during the 1989–9 ...

. On 18 September 2015, he was appointed as the assistant manager to Bilić at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He left the club along with Bilić's other coaching staff when the manager was sacked on 6 November 2017. On 12 March 2018, he was named the manager of

Croatian First Football 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. Establishe ...

club

, but he was sacked by club on 15 May 2018, after poor performance in the club. On 11 February 2019, he was named the new head coach for the Azerbaijan national team. On 13 December 2019, he was sacked as manager of the Azerbaijan national team due to the team's poor performance in the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

, despite managing a respectable 1–1 draw to his home country

at home. On 2 October 2023, Jurčević was appointed head coach of the Lebanon national team ahead of the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

and

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the 45 teams that will join hosts Canada men's national soccer team, Canada, Mexico national football team, Mexico, and the United States men's national soccer team, United States at the 2026 FIFA ...

. However, just two months into the role, Jurčević left the Lebanon national team just a month before the tournament began, by “mutual consent”.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Jurčević goal.''

Managerial

Honours

Player

NK Zagreb *

Yugoslav Third League Yugoslav Third League (; sr-Cyrl, 3. савезна лига) was the third tier football league of SFR Yugoslavia. The top clubs were promoted to the second tier, the Yugoslav Second League Yugoslav Second League ( Bosnian: ''Druga savezna l ...

(West): 1989–90 *

Yugoslav Second League Yugoslav Second League ( Bosnian: ''Druga savezna liga,'' Croatian: ''Druga savezna liga'', Serbian: ''Друга савезна лига'', Slovenian: ''Druga zvezna liga'', Macedonian: ''Втора сојузна лига'', ''Vtora sojuzna l ...

: 1990–91 Austria Salzburg *

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 1993–94, 1994–95 *

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 ...

Runner-up: 1993–94 Individual *

top scorer: 1993–94

Manager

Dinamo Zagreb * Croatian Super Cup:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

* Croatian Cup:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

References

External links