Radomir Antić

Football manager infobox
playername = Radomir Antić


fullname = Radomir Antić
nickname = "Antara", "Raddy"
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1948|11|22
cityofbirth = Žitište
countryofbirth = FPR Yugoslavia
currentclub =
position = Manager (former defender)
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1967-1968 1968-1976 1976-1978 1978-1980 1980-1984
clubs = Sloboda Užice FK Partizan Fenerbahçe Real Zaragoza Luton Town
caps(goals)= 28 (2) 58 (7) 100 (9)
nationalyears = 1973
nationalteam =SFR Yugoslavia
nationalcaps(goals) = 1 (0)
manageryears = 1988-1991
1991-1992
1992-1995
1995-1998
1999
2000
2000-2001
2003
2004
2008-| managerclubs = Real Zaragoza
Real Madrid
Real Oviedo
Atlético Madrid
Atlético Madrid
Atlético Madrid
Real Oviedo
FC Barcelona
Celta de Vigo
Serbia

Radomir Antić (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Антић) (born November 22, 1948) is a Serbian former football defender and current football manager.

Following a 17-year playing career - mainly modest and uneventful by top football standards - 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 (the other one is Enrique Fernández Viola).

Playing career

Antić was born in Žitište, Vojvodina, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia. 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, Partizan Belgrade (1968-1976).

In the summer of 1976 he signed for Fenerbahçe. 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 1983 he scored the goal which saved them from relegation out of the top division, just four minutes form the end of the final match of the season; the game was against Manchester City, who were relegated as a result.

Managerial career

Antic started his coaching career as an assistant with Partizan Belgrade (1985-88), working alongside head coaches Nenad Bjeković and later Fahrudin Jusufi.

Real Zaragoza

Antić's first head coaching job was with Real Zaragoza. His La Liga coaching debut came on September 4, 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 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 a seven-point lead to be robbed of the title by 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 Madrid, a club that he ended up coaching during three stints.

His achievements with transforming Oviedo's fortunes led to first Atlético engagement that ended up lasting three seasons (1995-98). The squad he took over during summer 1995 was a talented one, but with a reputation of continuous underachievement. It featured the quality core of José Luis Caminero, Kiko Narváez, Diego Simeone, and Luboslav Penev to which Antić added unheralded Milinko Pantić who quickly turned out to be the missing midfield piece this team needed. Under Antić's command, the squad 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, Gil bolstered Antić's squad ahead of 1996/1997 season that saw Atlético compete in Champions League in addition to defending the La Liga title.

For the 1997/98 season Gil again invested heavily into the team, bringing Italian superstar Christian Vieri fresh from winning the Serie A title with Juventus. He also bought crafty Brazilian Juninho Paulista from Middlesbrough FC for ₤12 million. Naturally the expectations were high, and when Atletico started sputtering in La Liga, the rumblings about Antić's possible dissmissal were heard for the first time. When Atlético got eliminated by S.S. Lazio at the semifinal 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.

econd time

However, Antić wouldn't be away from Atlético for long as Sacchi got sacked mid-season 1998/99 and the Serb returned for a second stint that lasted until the end of the season. 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 1999/00 season (started in February 2000) turned out to be the most difficult. Following Ranieri's dissmisal, 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.

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.

Real Oviedo, again

After his failure to keep Atletico 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 aging bad boy of English football Stan Collymore on January 30, 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.

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 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, 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 contract with Barça 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). [http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2003/02/01/srpski/S03013101.shtml]

Inheriting a squad of players he didn't pick himself, Antić immediately wanted some fresh blood by bringing in Juan Pablo Sorín from S.S. Lazio. He also started giving regular first team appearances to young goalie Víctor Valdés.

Antić managed to stabilize the squad and lead it to the 6th place La Liga finish, ensuring UEFA Cup spot. In the Champions League, under Antić, Barça dominated its second phase group, but lost the hard fought quarterfinal 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 F.C..

Following his arrival on January 29, 2004, his first move was bringing Saša Ilić from FK Partizan. Unfortunatelly, Antić couldn't pull the trick this time around. The squad never gelled together and he eventually resigned on March 29, 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.

erbian national team

On August 19, 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 Miroslav Đukić was being fired following a disastrous 2008 Olympic campaign and Đukić's public feuding with FA president Tomislav Karadzic.

The appointment also marks 59-year-old Antić's return to coaching after 4 years.

References

External links

* [http://arhiva.kurir-info.co.yu/Arhiva/2004/februar/04/SP-02-03022004.shtml Peti izazov Radomira Antića] , "Kurir", February 4, 2004