Radomir Antić

Radomir Antić

File:Radomir Antic.jpg
Personal information
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Serbia (manager)

Radomir Antić (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Антић; born 22 November 1948 in Žitište) is a Serbian former football defender and current football manager for the Serbian national team.

Following a 17-year playing career he found his true calling in coaching.

He is the only individual who has managed FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid. Additionally, Antić is one of only two men to have managed both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, long-time bitter rivals. (The other one is Enrique Fernández Viola).

Playing career

Antić was born in Žitište to a Serbian family that settled in the small Banat town shortly before his birth (his father is from Janja village near Bijeljina, his mother from Grmeč region). The family then moved to Titovo Užice when Radomir was six years old. He started his playing career with FK Sloboda Užice (1967-1968) and then moved to the club where he would play most of his career, FK Partizan (1968-1976).

In the summer of 1976, he signed for Fenerbahçe in Turkey. He spent two seasons in Istanbul before moving to La Liga where he played for Real Zaragoza.

In 1980, Antić moved on to Luton Town, staying until 1984. In May 1983, he scored the goal that saved them from relegation from the top division, the goal coming just four minutes from time in the final league match of the season; the game was against Manchester City, who themselves were relegated as a result. Almost 33 years of age when he arrived at Luton, Antic already looked to coaching as a career option once his playing days are finished. To that end he often cites David Pleat, his manager at Luton, as an influence in his coaching style.

Managerial career

After finishing his playing career at the age of 36, Antić started a career in coaching as an assistant with FK Partizan (1985-87), working under head coach Nenad Bjeković. Partizan won the 1985-86 league title amid a huge match-fixing controversy.

In early July 1987, Fahrudin Jusufi was brought in as the new head coach and initially Antić continued his assistant role. For the pre-season training ahead of the 1987-88 season, the team went abroad where Jusufi and Antić got into a row over player personnel issues that resulted in Antić being essentially demoted to the position of Partizan under-16 youth team (cadet squad) coach.

Real Zaragoza

Antić's first head coaching job was with Real Zaragoza. In addition to formerly playing for the club, his appointment owed a lot to being recommended for the job by countryman Vujadin Boškov, who successfully led Sampdoria at the time, but still enjoyed a lot of clout in Spain having led Zaragoza (coached Antić there for two years) and other La Liga clubs during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Antić's La Liga coaching debut came on 4 September 1988 in a game versus Valencia CF that ended in a scoreless draw. The club finished the season in 5th place, qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

He ended up spending almost three full seasons (1988-1991) managing a club he also turned out for as a player.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid came calling in March 1991 and Antić took over from club legend Alfredo di Stéfano for the last 12 league games of the 1990-91 season. Real finished third in the league, qualifying for UEFA Cup.

Antić also spent the first half of the 1991/92 season (19 league matches) coaching the Spanish giants. With Emilio Butragueño, Míchel, Fernando Hierro, Manuel Sanchís, and Gheorghe Hagi as the club's established stars, Antić brought in Robert Prosinečki, prominent member of the Red Star Belgrade's 1991 European Cup winning side, as well as promising 21-year-old Luís Enrique from Sporting de Gijón.

The way Antić got fired mid-season in January 1992, showed the full range of club politics as well as the dog-eat-dog nature of top club coaching. He was enjoying a good run as the club's coach when then Real president Ramón Mendoza brought Leo Beenhakker into the organization in a vaguely defined role of a sporting director. In a matter of weeks Antić was sacked and replaced with Beenhakker. At the time of Antić's firing, Real was holding the top spot in La Liga by a 7-point margin and was also smoothly through to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals.

Proving perhaps that what goes around comes around, led by Beenhakker, Real squandered the seven-point lead to be lost the title to their bitter rivals FC Barcelona on the last day of the season.

Real Oviedo

Antić was hired to coach Real Oviedo when the club's brass fired previous longtime coach Javier Irureta after week 13 of the 1992/93 season. Antić completed that season with the club, managing to avoid relegation by finishing two spots above the drop zone. He remained at the club for two more seasons after that.

During summer 1993 transfer window, he signed Slaviša Jokanović from FK Partizan whose midfield presence greatly helped the squad. The expectations at Oviedo were obviously much more modest compared to Real, with mere top league survival being the biggest goal. It was therefore no small surprise that a very low budget Antić-led Oviedo team finished the 1993-94 league season in 9th place.

Antić's most notable signing at Oviedo came before the start of 1994-95 season when he brought often injured Prosinečki from Real Madrid, thus reuniting with a player he signed to Madrid in the first place. Oviedo again finished the La Liga season in respectable 9th position, missing a European spot by a couple of points.

Atlético Madrid

Antić's greatest coaching successes are undoubtedly tied to Atlético de Madrid, a club that he ended up coaching during three stints.

His achievements with transforming Oviedo's fortunes led to offers from bigger Spanish clubs. Despite having been in final stages of the negotiations with Valencia CF with even a pre-contract signed, Antić decided to take Atlético's offer, leading to his first engagement with the club that ended up lasting three seasons (1995-98). The squad he took over during summer 1995 was a talented one featuring the quality core of José Luis Caminero, Kiko Narváez, Diego Simeone, and Luboslav Penev, but with a reputation of continuous underachievement. In the season prior to his arrival, the club finished one point above relegation zone by earning a 2-2 draw versus Sevilla FC on the last matchday of the season.

Out of the 35-player squad he inherited, Antić quickly identified 20 players he was counting on for the following season before setting about adding 5 to 6 more players during the transfer window. He tried to get 19-year-old Fernando Morientes from Albacete, but the talented striker signed with Real Zaragoza. Out of the players Antić managed to sign, the biggest find turned out to be unheralded Milinko Pantić whom Antić plucked from obscurity in Panionios for very little money. The move initially raised eyebrows with many questioning the usefulness of a complete unknown who is about to turn 29 years of age. However, over the coming season Pantić would prove himself to be the missing piece this team needed with key goals and assists. Under Antić's command, the squad featuring Juan Manuel López and Roberto Solozábal in central defence, Simeone, Pantić, and Caminero in midfield, and Penev and Kiko upfront gelled together masterfully en route to an impressive and historic La Liga/Copa del Rey double in 1995-96 season.

Winning the double endeared Antić to Atlético faithful and more importantly to club's controversial president Jesús Gil. Notorious for quickly going through coaches, Gil kept Antić at the helm of his team for two more seasons (three consecutive seasons in total) - a record of sorts considering Gil's trigger-happy nature when it came to gaffers.

During summer 1996 transfer window, the squad upgrade was in order ahead of the 1996–97 season where Atlético was to compete in Champions League in addition to defending the La Liga title. As a replacement for aging Luboslav Penev who was impressive during the double title season despite simultaneously recovering from testicular cancer, Antić wanted to bring in promising 19-year-old Brazilian Ronaldo from PSV and pushed hard within the club hierarchy for that to be done. However, he ultimately got overruled by higher instances and Ronaldo signed with FC Barcelona about a month later.

Ahead of the 1997-98 season, Gil invested heavily into the team, bringing 24-year-old Italian superstar Christian Vieri fresh from winning the Serie A title with Juventus. He also bought crafty Brazilian Juninho from Middlesbrough for ₤12 million. In order to somewhat offset the costs, inspirational midfielder Diego Simeone was sold to Internazionale. Naturally the expectations were high, and when Atletico started sputtering in La Liga, the rumblings about Antić's possible dismissal were heard for the first time. When Atlético got eliminated by Lazio at the semi-final stage of 1997-98 UEFA Cup, Gil launched into an obscenity-laced tirade against Spanish television for reporting he has lined up an Italian coach to replace Antić.

In the end, that is exactly what happened as he was let go at season's end during the summer of 1998 to make way for Arrigo Sacchi.

Second time

However, Antić wouldn't be away from Atlético for long as Sacchi got sacked mid-season 1998-99 after week 22 and following a 5-match stint of caretaker coach Carlos Sánchez Aguiar, the Serb returned for a second spell that lasted from week 28 until the end of the season (11 league matches). The repeat of league success proved elusive, but he managed to lead the team all the way to Copa del Rey final in Sevilla where they ended up losing heavily to Valencia CF (0-3). Antić was again let go at season's end, and eventually replaced with Claudio Ranieri.

Third time

Antić's third stint at the club, which came during the second part of 1999-2000 season (started in February 2000) turned out to be the most difficult. Following Ranieri's dissmisal after week 26, Antić took over a squad that was already in a tailspin, and his arrival did little to change matters. Despite the goalscoring exploits of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, they were eliminated from UEFA Cup at the eight-final stage by RC Lens, but relegation from La Liga several months later came as the most painful blow of all. Antić was let go after week 37 with Atletico already mathematically relegated with one league match left in the season. For the final match the team was coached by Fernando Zambrano.

Making the Copa del Rey final for the second consecutive season came as one bright spot in an otherwise disastrous season, but even that wasn't to be as they were beaten to the trophy by RCD Espanyol.

Return to Real Oviedo

After his failure to keep Atlético afloat, Antić came back to coach Real Oviedo in the summer of 2000.

It turned out to be another unsuccessful stint for him, and at times full of controversy. It is mostly remembered for the signing of the bad boy of English football Stan Collymore on 30 January 2001, against the wishes and advice of many watchers. The move garnered a lot of media interest, but also had a disruptive influence on the rest of the team. It soon became apparent that Collymore is out of shape and mentally not focused on the football. Barely a month after arriving to much fanfare, Collymore left Oviedo without notifying anyone from the club and soon released a statement through a spokesperson announcing his retirement from football.

Following a string of poor results, Oviedo was relegated to Segunda División at the end of the season.

FC Barcelona

After taking a year and a half long break from coaching, Antić joined FC Barcelona in late January 2003 on initiative by club president Joan Gaspart to take over from recently sacked Louis van Gaal. Caretaker manager, Antonio de la Cruz, took temporary charge of team affairs until Antić took the reins with the famous team occupying the embarrassing 15th spot in La Liga standings with only 23 points from 20 league matches (six wins, five draws, and nine losses), but well placed in the UEFA Champions League second phase. The club's Spanish league position was so weak that mere top-flight survival was put forth as Antić's immediate goal. On the other hand, in Champions League, the expectations were substantial. Some press outlets reported that his six month contract with Barça was worth €600,000 and that it was incentive based with a clause stipulating automatic 1-year extension at the end of the season if the club qualifies for the following season's Champions League based on the domestic league finish (top 4).

Inheriting a squad of players he didn't pick himself, Antić immediately wanted some fresh blood by bringing in Juan Pablo Sorín from Lazio. He also started giving regular first team appearances to young goalie Víctor Valdés as well as throwing another youngster Andrés Iniesta into the first-team mix.

Antić managed to stabilize the squad and lead it to the 6th place La Liga finish, ensuring UEFA Cup spot. His record with the club in the season since taking over was nine wins, six draws, and three losses. In the Champions League, under Antić, Barça dominated its second phase group, but lost the hard fought quarter-final tie to Juventus.

Despite all his success in difficult circumstances, Antić was replaced with Frank Rijkaard during the offseason. The coaching change came as part of the general team overhaul initiated by the newly arrived club president Joan Laporta.

Celta de Vigo

Due to Antić's widely publicised success with Barça, he developed somewhat of a reputation as a crisis coach. It was probably this kind of thinking that led Celta de Vigo to hire him mid-season 2003/04 in difficult circumstances similar to Barça's one year earlier. The team lost 2-5 at home to Real Sociedad, dropping to just one point above relegation zone, all of which prompted coach Miguel Ángel Lotina's resignation. Antić took over just three days later. In another similarity to Barça, Celta was also in good shape in UEFA Champions League where it awaited the round-of-16 tie versus Arsenal.

Following his arrival on 29 January 2004, Antić's debut at Celta's bench took place away at Real Betis where the losing continued with final score being 1-0. Following this match in which he felt Celta deserved a more positive result, Antić identified overturning the loss of self-confidence among some of his players due to club's weak league position as his biggest challenge. He also mentioned that important squad members Aleksandr Mostovoi, Edu, and Jesuli were experiencing trouble hitting their usual form following injury layoffs. Antić's first move on the transfer front was bringing Saša Ilić from FK Partizan. Unfortunately, Antić couldn't pull the trick this time around. The squad never gelled together and he eventually resigned on 29 March 2004 following a 0-2 home loss to Real Zaragoza that dropped the team to second-last league position. He was in charge of the team in just nine league games, managing to get only seven points. They were also easily eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal (5-2 on aggregate).

Antić's resignation hardly changed matters as Celta got relegated at the end of the season.

He later admitted joining Celta in such circumstances was a mistake and vowed never to accept coaching jobs in mid-season again.

Serbian national team

File:Radomir Antic 2.jpg

Antić led Serbia national football team to first in their group in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

On 19 August 2008, it was announced that Antić agreed terms with the Serbian Football Association to take over his native country's national team. The appointment came in somewhat controversial circumstances as previous head coach Miroslav Đukić was being fired following a disastrous 2008 Olympic campaign and Đukić's public feuding with FA president Tomislav Karadžić. Antić's name had been mentioned anytime the national team job was available throughout the previous decade and many times he turned it down so many fund it surprising that he finally said yes.

The appointment also marked 59-year-old Antić's return to coaching after four years. According to Antić and Karadžić, the negotiations with Serbian FA were very short and the agreement was reached quickly after his only conditions that he brings in his own support staff and that his second in command is his long time collaborator Rešad Kunovac were accepted.

Hired barely two weeks before the start of 2010 World Cup qualifying, he had precious little time to acquaint himself with the players and prepare. His bench debut took place on September 6, 2009 in a qualifier versus the Faroe Islands in front of less than 10,000 spectators at the almost empty Marakana stadium. And although the 2-0 win was far from convincing, Antić and his team got passing marks as all eyes were on the match away at powerhouse France in Saint Denis four days later. Looking at the team he fielded on his debut, Antić introduced some fresh talent from the domestic league such as midfielders Nenad Milijaš and Zoran Tošić as well as defender Ivan Obradović. Furthermore, he brought back skillful attacking midfielder Miloš Krasić who was completely ignored by Đukić. Taking on France in the next match Antić returned to the tried and tested players, however he still caused a surprise by starting 19-year-old Miralem Sulejmani on the wing thus continuing his long-standing practice of throwing in-form youngsters into the fire. Also surprising was leaving tall striker Nikola Žigić on the bench and starting with only on attacker, Marko Pantelić, upfront. And while Serbia ended up losing 2-1, many positives were taken from the match such as a brave attacking approach with a lot of running from the wings.

In his first qualifying campaign managing Serbia, Antić led Serbia to first in their group in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

Personal

Antić's primary residence is in Spain where he owns property in Madrid and Marbella. He is married to Vera. Serbian basketball player Nikola Lončar is his son in law, having married his daughter Ana.

External links

• Profile on Serbian national football team website
• Antić: Delimo istu filozofiju sa Špancima, MTS Mondo, March 31, 2009