Slavoljub Muslin
Slavoljub Muslin (Serbian Cyrillic: Славољуб Муслин, pronounced [slǎʋoʎub mǔslin]); born 15 June 1953) is a Serbian football manager and former player. He worked as a head coach of the Serbian national football team. He began his head coaching career in 1988 and has since had stints in France, Morocco, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belgium, Cyprus, Belarus and Russia. On 5 May 2016 he became the head coach of the Serbian national football team until October 2017. Prior to that, Muslin was a notable football player. He played as a defender for several clubs, being the most important Red Star Belgrade and later Lille OSC.
Muslin with Krasnodar in 2011 | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Slavoljub Muslin | ||
Date of birth | 15 June 1953 | ||
Place of birth |
Belgrade, PR Serbia, Yugoslavia | ||
Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
Position(s) | Defender | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
? | OFK Beograd | (0) | |
1972–1973 | BASK Beograd | (0) | |
1973–1975 | Rad Beograd | (0) | |
1975–1981 | Red Star Belgrade | 140 | (3) |
1981–1983 | Lille | (0) | |
1983–1986 | Brest | (0) | |
1986–1987 | Caen | ||
Teams managed | |||
1989–1991 | Brest | ||
1992–1995 | Pau FC | ||
1995–1996 | Bordeaux | ||
1996–1997 | Lens | ||
1997–1998 | Le Mans | ||
1998 | Raja Casablanca | ||
1999–2001 | Red Star Belgrade | ||
2002–2003 | Levski Sofia | ||
2003–2004 | Red Star Belgrade | ||
2004–2005 | Metalurh Donetsk | ||
2005 | Lokeren | ||
2005–2006 | Lokomotiv Moscow | ||
2006–2007 | Lokeren | ||
2007–2008 | FC Khimki | ||
2008–2009 | Dinamo Minsk | ||
2009–2010 | Anorthosis Famagusta | ||
2010–2013 | FC Krasnodar | ||
2014 | Amkar Perm | ||
2015 | Standard Liège | ||
2016–2017 | Serbia | ||
2018–2019 | Al-Fayha | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only |
His son Marko is also a professional footballer.
Playing career
Born to Croatian father Duje Muslin (from Split) and Serbian mother Danica (from Kragujevac), Slavoljub Muslin was born and raised in Belgrade where he started playing football with OFK Beograd, continuing on in BASK, and FK Rad before transferring to Red Star Belgrade.
Muslin was a defensive stalwart for Red Star Belgrade in the 1970s. Throughout his six years at Marakana he played alongside some of the club's biggest stars like Dragan Džajić, Vladislav Bogićević, Jovan Aćimović, Vladimir Petrović, Dušan Savić, among others. He has won three championship titles with Red Star and finished as runner up in the UEFA Cup in 1978-79 losing the final to Borussia Mönchengladbach.
In 1981, he moved on to Lille OSC, then to Stade Brestois 29 and finished his playing career with SM Caen.
Coaching career
Stade Brestois
Muslin began coaching in 1988 at the club where he spent some playing years earlier - Stade Brestois 29 - staying there until 1992. For the last two years of his tenure he had David Ginola in the squad.
Pau and Bordeaux
Muslin spent the next three seasons at Pau FC before moving on to Girondins de Bordeaux in summer 1995. With a potent squad of quality up-and-coming players like Bixente Lizarazu, Christophe Dugarry as well as superstar-in-the-making Zinedine Zidane, Muslin led the team on a great run in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup ensuring progression to the quarterfinals before winter break 1995–96. He was sacked during spring 1996 due to poor domestic league form, which meant that he didn't get to lead the team in the UEFA Cup quarterfinals where the Girondins eliminated the favourites AC Milan and later made it to the final where they lost to a Bayern Munich team featuring the likes of Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, Oliver Kahn, Markus Babbel, etc.
Lens
RC Lens became Muslin's home in the summer of 1996. He coached the team in 1996–97 season before getting the axe on 11 March 1997.
Le Mans
He went to Le Mans UC72 in the summer of 1997.
Raja Casablanca
He changed clubs during the 1998–99 season, moving to coaching the Moroccan side Raja Casablanca.
Red Star Belgrade
His old club Red Star Belgrade came calling in late summer 1999. Muslin took over the reins on 20 September, in difficult circumstances after Miloljub Ostojić got sacked because of poor league form and embarrassing 0–1 first leg "home" loss (match was played in Sofia due to air traffic embargo imposed on FR Yugoslavia following the NATO bombing that ended a couple of months earlier) to Montpellier HSC in UEFA Cup first round. Though he couldn't lead his squad past the French team in the second leg (his first match in charge), Muslin won the domestic double (league & cup) at the end of the season in an impressive fashion.
He won the league again next season, but lost in the cup final to bitter rivals FK Partizan.
He resigned his post on 30 September 2001, six weeks into the 2001–02 league season. The specific reason was never given, but it is widely believed it had to do with the ongoing simmering row with striker Mihajlo Pjanović that came to a head during the Champions League 3rd round qualifying tie when Muslin dropped the 24-year-old forward and Red Star ended up losing 0–3 to Bayer Leverkusen.
Levski
Muslin was not without a job for too long as in late March 2002 Levski Sofia sacked their coach Rüdiger Abramczik mid-season and offered the job to the Serbian who promptly steered the team to the league and cup double in May. He was sacked in April 2003 as Levski was trailing the leaders by 8 points in the domestic league. The team went on to win the National Cup under the management of Georgi Todorov.
Red Star, again
In June 2003, Red Star came calling again after two seasons under coach Zoran Filipović. By the following spring Muslin brought his second domestic double to the club as a coach. The split from Red Star was again full of controversy. After winning the title, Muslin reportedly wanted more say in the club's transfer policy, essentially calling for his coaching role to be expanded into what club managers in England do. Red Star president Dragan Džajić would have none of it and a huge row erupted. At one point, usually calm and collected Džajić exploded in the media calling Muslin "the worst person he's ever met".
Metalurh
The next stop for Muslin in summer 2004 became Ukraine's Metalurh Donetsk, which he coached fairly successfully for the better part of 2004–05 domestic league season. He resigned his post on 8 March 2005, citing differences in opinion over the vision for the team's immediate future as the reason. His departure came after league matchday 17 with Metalurh occupying the 3rd spot in Vyscha Liha. Simultaneously, Muslin also led the team in 2004/05 UEFA Cup - with much less distinguished outcome - after successfully overcoming the qualifying stage, Metalurh was demolished by SS Lazio (0-6 on aggregate).
Lokeren
Then came Belgian side Lokeren between May and December 2005.
Lokomotiv
In December 2005, Muslin was appointed as coach of Lokomotiv Moscow. With star forward Dmitri Sychev as the team's undisputed leader on the pitch, Lokomotiv started the Russian League 2006 season in great fashion, jumping ahead early to the top of the table and going on an 18-match unbeaten streak at one point. Closely pursued by CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv kept holding on to the top league spot until mid-October when a string of indifferent results saw them surrender it. Muslin was already under the gun following his team's elimination in UEFA Cup's first round to Belgian side S.V. Zulte Waregem, and after giving up the league leading position, he was promptly fired in October 2006.
Lokeren, again
On 26 November 2006, Muslin's return to Lokeren bench was announced. He arrived at the club in the middle of a bad run of results that prompted previous coach Ariël Jacobs' departure with Lokeren in 13th league spot. However, Muslin failed to raise the team's form and Lokeren barely avoided relegation, finishing the Belgian Jupiler League 2006/07 campaign in 16th spot (out of 18 teams). During the summer 2007, Muslin was replaced with Georges Leekens.
Khimki
On 7 September 2007, Muslin was announced as the new coach of FC Khimki. At the time of his arrival following matchday 23 of the 2007 season, the team was occupying 11th league spot, only three points out of the relegation zone. Under his guidance, Khimki finished the season in 9th spot, five points out of the relegation zone. In the 2008 season after matchday 5 Khimki occupied the 16th spot out of 16 after 0-4 defeat from Rubin Kazan. On 14 April 2008, Muslin was fired.
Minsk
On 17 September 2008, he was named as the new head coach of Dinamo Minsk. But just ten months later on 27 July 2009 was fired again from the Belarusian club.
Anorthosis Famagusta
On 7 August 2009, he signed a contract with the Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta, a year after the team's appearance in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League 2008-2009. The Serbian replaced German coach Ernst Middendorp. He was released in 2010, due to the elimination of team in the quarterfinals of the cup, although the team was second in the Championship.
Amkar Perm
On 17 June 2014, Muslin was announced as a new head coach of FC Amkar Perm in Russian Football Premier League.[1] But after the end of the first part of 2014-15 season, he was sacked for unsatisfactory results.[2]
Standard Liège
Muslin was announced as a new head coach of Standard Liège on 5 June 2015.[3] His departure was announced on 28 August 2015.[4]
Serbia
Muslin became Serbia manager in 2016. During his time their Serbia finished top of their 2018 World Cup qualifying group ahead of the Republic of Ireland, thus qualified Serbia to a major competitive tournament after eight years. Despite this his time in charge of Serbia was ended in October 2017.[5]
Managerial statistics
- As of match played 2 February 2019
Team | From | To | Record | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
Brest | July 1988 | June 1992 | 154 | 68 | 41 | 45 | 44.16 |
Pau | June 1992 | May 1995 | 100 | 37 | 34 | 29 | 37.00 |
Bordeaux | July 1995 | February 1996 | 42 | 20 | 8 | 14 | 47.62 |
Lens | July 1996 | March 1997 | 33 | 9 | 7 | 17 | 27.27 |
Le Man | June 1997 | June 1998 | 46 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 39.13 |
Raja Casablanca | September 1998 | September 1999 | 45 | 26 | 13 | 6 | 57.78 |
Red Star Belgrade | September 1999 | September 2001 | 102 | 75 | 18 | 9 | 73.53 |
Levski Sofia | March 2002 | April 2003 | 47 | 32 | 8 | 7 | 68.09 |
Red Star Belgrade | June 2003 | May 2004 | 41 | 31 | 7 | 3 | 75.61 |
Metalurh Donetsk | July 2004 | March 2005 | 24 | 15 | 2 | 7 | 62.50 |
Lokeren | May 2005 | December 2005 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 43.75 |
Lokomotiv Moscow | December 2005 | October 2006 | 33 | 16 | 9 | 8 | 48.48 |
Lokeren | November 2006 | July 2007 | 20 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 10.00 |
Khimki | September 2007 | April 2008 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 33.33 |
Dinamo Minsk | September 2008 | July 2009 | 25 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 56.00 |
Anorthosis | August 2009 | February 2010 | 31 | 21 | 3 | 7 | 67.74 |
Krasnodar | January 2011 | August 2013 | 83 | 31 | 20 | 32 | 37.35 |
Amkar Perm | June 2014 | December 2014 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 17.65 |
Standard Liège | June 2015 | August 2015 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 55.56 |
Serbia | May 2016 | October 2017 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 53.33 |
Al-Fayha | October 2018 | February 2019 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 33.33 |
Total | 910 | 447 | 218 | 245 | 49.12 |
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Slavoljub Muslin. |
- "Славолюб Муслин – новый главный тренер "Амкара"" (in Russian). FC Amkar Perm. 17 June 2014.
- "Информационное сообщение" (in Russian). FC Amkar Perm. 9 December 2014.
- "Muslin: "Standard zal offensief voetbal brengen"" [Muslin: "Standard will play attacking football"] (in Dutch). sporza.be. 5 June 2015.
- "Slavo Muslin" (in French). Standard de Liege. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 31 August 2015.
- "Serbia sack manager weeks after World Cup qualification". 30 October 2017. Cite journal requires
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External links
- Website from LEVSKI2000
- Upoznavanje u trku, Glas javnosti, 21 September 1999
- Muslin podneo ostavku, Gov't of Serbia Web Portal, 30 September 2001
- Povratak Slavoljuba Muslina u Zvezdu, Gov't of Serbia Web Portal, 10 June 2003
- Zbogom Zvezdi zbog principa, Dnevnik, 24 May 2004
- Muslin talks about young talent Milan Pršo, as well as his own ethnic origins, Slobodna Dalmacija, 30 January 2005
- Muslin više nije trener Metalurga, B92, 8 March 2005
- Osvojicu Rusiju, Kurir, 5 October 2006
- Slavoljub Muslin at WorldFootball.net