Slovenia have decided to bring back the former manager Srecko Katanec as the man to lead them to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The former defender is coming back to lead Slovenia the second time after having had a spell from 1998 to 2002. He then went on to manage the national teams of Macedonia and United Arab Emirates before leaving his post as the manager of the UAE national team more than two years ago. Srecko Katanec represented Yugoslavia during his playing days. He represented Yugoslavia in 31 matches and scored five goals in these matches.
Slovenia have decided to bring back the former manager Srecko Katanec as the man to lead them to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The former defender is coming back to lead Slovenia the second time after having had a spell from 1998 to 2002. He then went on to manage the national teams of Macedonia and United Arab Emirates before leaving his post as the manager of the UAE national team more than two years ago. Srecko Katanec represented Yugoslavia during his playing days. He represented Yugoslavia in 31 matches and scored five goals in these matches.
He was also part of the Yugoslavia national team that managed to reach the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup. After the independence for Slovenia, Katanec represented the latter in five matches before retiring from football.
The 49-year-old has represented several high-profile European clubs like Stuttgart, Partizan Belgrade, and Sampdoria. He is not given the task of getting Slovenia to the World Cup, which is going to be extremely difficult given the poor start made by the team in the World Cup qualifying group. There are currently seven points adrift of the leaders Switzerland in their group after managing just three points from the opening round of matches.
“The NZS executive board decided unanimously to appoint Katanec instead of Slavisa Stojanovic who parted company with the national team by mutual consent in December.
Katanec’s contract runs until the end of Slovenia’s Euro 2016 campaign and his first game in charge will be a friendly against Bosnia in Koper next month,” said the Slovenian football Association in a statement given on its official website. Katanec’s first major match incharge of the team will be against the Republic of Ireland when the World Cup qualifying resumes in March. The team has managed just one win in the last five matches.