Ivica Osim

Ivica Osim was a Bosnian footballer and manager who was regarded as one of the best Bosnian football managers of all time. Osim was born in Sarajevo, starting his professional football career with his local side FK Željezničar in 1959. In 1964, Osim was part of Yugoslavia’s team that played at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he made his international début. In total, Osim played in 16 matches for the Yugoslav national team. After a short domestic stay in the Netherlands, Osim spent the rest of his playing career in France from 1970 to 1978, including 105 appearances for Sedan and 90 appearances for Strasbourg.

Osim’s coaching career began with his first club, FK Željezničar, where he managed them from 1978 to 1986. Under Osim’s leadership, FK Željezničar won the Yugoslav First League in 1971–72 and reached the semi-finals of the 1984–85 UEFA Cup.

Osim was the manager of the Yugoslavia national team from 1986 to 1992. Yugoslavia initially qualified for UEFA Euro 1992. However, the team was disqualified from the tournament due to the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Osim resigned as the team’s manager in May 1992, with his family facing bombardment during the Siege of Sarajevo. Osim left Yugoslavia and went on to manage Panathinaikos in Greece from 1992 to 1994, and SK Sturm Graz in Austria from 1994 to 2002. After managing European clubs, Osim moved to Japan to manage JEF United Chiba from 2003 to 2006. This was followed by a stint as the manager of Japan’s national team for one year. Osim was very popular in Japan, with a book of his quotes becoming a bestseller. He suffered a stroke in 2007, which ended his coaching career.