Robert Prosinečki

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Robert Prosinečki
Personal information
Date of birth 12 January 1969 (1969-01-12) (age 43)
Place of birth Schwenningen, West Germany
Height 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current club Red Star Belgrade (head coach)
Youth career
BSV Schwenningen
1974–1979 Stuttgarter Kickers
1979–1986 Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1986–1987 Dinamo Zagreb 2 (1)
1987–1991 Red Star Belgrade 117 (24)
1991–1994 Real Madrid 55 (10)
1994–1995 Oviedo 30 (5)
1995–1996 Barcelona 20 (4)
1997 Sevilla 19 (2)
1997–2000 Croatia Zagreb 50 (14)
2000 Hrvatski Dragovoljac 4 (1)
2001 Standard Liège 21 (4)
2001–2002 Portsmouth 33 (9)
2002–2003 Olimpija Ljubljana 23 (3)
2003–2004 NK Zagreb 26 (5)
Total 400 (82)
National team
1987 Yugoslavia U20 5 (1)
1989–1991 Yugoslavia 15 (4)
1994–2002 Croatia 49 (10)
Teams managed
2006–2010 Croatia (assistant manager)
2010– Red Star Belgrade
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Robert Prosinečki (pronounced [robert prosinetʃki], born 12 January 1969) is a Croatian football manager and former football midfielder. Prosinečki is regarded by many as the player with best technique that ever played in and for Croatia. Former national squad teammate Zvonimir Boban, humbly, also agreed with this. His dribbling is considered excellent, and his ability to keep possession of the ball is very highly regarded. He is one of the few footballers to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

After retiring from active football he worked as assistant manager of the Croatia national football team between 2006[1] and 2010, before being appointed manager of Red Star Belgrade in December 2010.

Contents

[edit] Early life and career

Prosinečki was born in Schwenningen, West Germany, into a family of Yugoslav gastarbeiters of mixed ethnicity. His father Đuro was Croatian, hailing from Gornji Čemehovec village near Kraljevec na Sutli, and his mother Emilija Đoković is Serbian, originally from Ježevica village near Čačak.[2][3][4]

He spent his childhood in Germany before moving back to SR Croatia with his family in 1979, at the age of ten. By that time Prosinečki had already been playing in the Stuttgarter Kickers youth system. Once in Croatia, he continued in the youth setup of Dinamo Zagreb.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Dinamo Zagreb

After moving up the youth ranks for years, Prosinečki started getting occasional first team appearances during the 1986–87 league season under head coach Miroslav Blažević. On his league debut versus FK Željezničar, he managed to score a goal. By the end of the season, he recorded one more league appearance.

Wanting to secure his son's financial future, Prosinečki's father Đuro started pushing within club hierarchy for a professional contract to be given to his 18-year-old son.[5] However, coach Blažević sent him away, famously claiming that he would eat his coaching diploma if Prosinečki ever became a real football player.[6][7]

[edit] Red Star Belgrade

In the summer of 1987 Đuro Prosinečki took Robert over to Belgrade and got the professional contract they were after. Dragan Džajić, Red Star's then football director, remembers the transfer as follows:

“ On one of our visits to Zagreb we stayed at Hotel Esplanade where I got approached by a man who introduced himself as Robert Prosinečki's uncle. He told me his nephew wasn't happy at Dinamo and asked me if we could arrange a tryout. I told them to come to Belgrade in a couple of days and they did. At the tryout I saw this kid do wonders with the ball and I immediately asked our head coach Velibor Vasović to schedule an afternoon practice session at the main stadium so that I could see the kid one more time. It was obvious we had a classy player on our hands, and I initiated the contract proceedings right away. Our lawyer informed us that we wouldn't have to pay a transfer fee to Dinamo so Robert's father Đuro and I agreed everything in five minutes.[8] ”


Immediately upon arrival to his new club, Prosinečki became a first team regular and furthermore, much to Blažević's chagrin, also rapidly established himself as one of Yugoslavia's most gifted and talented players. Playing under head coach Vasović, the youngster earned a spot in Red Star's midfield alongside Dragan Stojković, Žarko Đurović, and Goran Milojević just a few weeks into the 1987–88 league season and never looked back. In October 1987 he was part of the Yugoslav youth squad which won the World Youth Championship in Chile, with Prosinečki winning the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. Playing in Chile meant that he was away from the club for the entire month of October, and he was already held in such high regard at Red Star that club brass attempted to bring him back from South America after the tournament's group stages, so that he could play in their 1987–88 UEFA Cup second round tie versus Club Brugge. The Yugoslav team players protested to FIFA, and João Havelange, the organisation's chairman at the time, intervened to keep Prosinečki in Chile.[9]

During his four-year spell at the club Prosinečki helped Red Star win three Yugoslav First League titles and one Yugoslav Cup, as well as participating in the club's greatest success in history by winning the 1991 European Cup.

He then played with Real Madrid, Real Oviedo, Barcelona, Sevilla, NK Croatia Zagreb, Standard Liège, Portsmouth (where he is considered a legend despite playing only one season in the latter stages of his career), Olimpija Ljubljana, and Zagreb.

[edit] Real Madrid

Prosinečki joined the Spanish giants during the summer 1991 for a transfer fee of ₧2.5 billion (€15 million). Led by club president Ramón Mendoza and head coach Radomir Antić, the club had huge expectations from their expensive and highly rated signing.[10] Real went through a difficult previous season, twice making a coaching change and barely getting a UEFA Cup spot by finishing third in La Liga under Antić, their third head coach that season.

However, pretty much immediately 22-year-old Prosinečki got sidelined with a string of muscular injuries. Administered by team doctors, he went underwent a series of tests as well as a strict dietary regime in addition to getting forced into changing many lifestyle-related habits. Still, the first season turned out to be a complete write-off: he appeared in only three league matches with a notable shining moment - scoring a free-kick goal versus FC Barcelona in El Clásico on 19 October 1991.

Although injury-riddled as well, Prosinečki's second season at Real did provide a bit of a breakthrough with 29 league appearances and 3 goals, however, it was still far off the expectations indicated by his reputation and price tag.

His best season was incidentally his last, with six league goals. Still, during 1994 summer transfer window, Real brass decided that his physical fragility and injuries are too much to deal with and offloaded him to Real Oviedo.

[edit] Portsmouth

In summer 2001, 32-year-old Prosinečki signed for Division 1 (second-tier of the English football league system) side Portsmouth on a one-year deal.

Prosinečki is still held as a folk hero at Portsmouth for his marvelous one man performances in the centre of midfield, his goals and assists saving the club from relegation in the 2001-02 season. At the end of the 2007-08 Premier League season the readers of The News have picked Prosinečki for all-time best Portsmouth eleven. He is only non-British player among elected.

It was after talking to Prosinečki that current Croatia international Niko Kranjčar decided to sign for Portsmouth in the summer of 2006.[11]

[edit] Career statistics

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Yugoslavia League Cup League Cup Continental Total
1986-87 Dinamo Zagreb First League 2 1
1987-88 Red Star Belgrade First League 23 4 4 0
1988-89 33 4 2 0
1989-90 32 5 6 1
1990-91 29 12 9 4
Spain League Copa del Rey Copa de la Liga Europe Total
1991-92 Real Madrid La Liga 3 1 0 0 - - 2 1 5 2
1992-93 29 3 2 1 - - 5 0 36 4
1993-94 23 6 4 0 - - 5 0 32 6
1994-95 Real Oviedo La Liga 30 5 2 0 - - - - 32 5
1995-96 Barcelona La Liga 19 2
1996-97 Sevilla La Liga 20 4
Croatia League Croatian Cup League Cup Europe Total
1997-98 Croatia Zagreb Prva HNL 16 5
1998-99 15 4
1999-00 19 5
2000-01 Hrvatski dragovoljac Prva HNL 4 1
Belgium League Belgian Cup League Cup Europe Total
2000-01 Standard Liège First Division 21 4
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
2001-02 Portsmouth First Division 33 9
Slovenia League Pokal Hervis League Cup Europe Total
2002-03 Olimpija Slovenian PrvaLiga 23 3
Croatia League Croatian Cup League Cup Europe Total
2003-04 NK Zagreb Prva HNL 26 5
Total Yugoslavia 119 25
Spain 124 21
Croatia 80 20
Belgium 20 4
England 33 9
Slovenia 23 3
Career total 400 82

[12]

Yugoslavia national team
Year Apps Goals
1989 5 1
1990 7 2
1991 3 1
Total 15 4
Croatia national team
Year Apps Goals
1994 5 1
1995 5 2
1996 9 0
1997 7 1
1998 8 4
1999 0 0
2000 2 0
2001 8 2
2002 5 0
Total 49 10

[edit] International career

Prosinečki has 49 caps for Croatia and has scored 10 goals for his country. He was also capped 15 times, scoring four goals, for Yugoslavia. In 1987, Prosinečki was named the tournament's best player as Yugoslavia won the World Youth Championship in Chile along with fellow Croatians Davor Šuker and Igor Štimac. He then played for Yugoslavia at the 1990 World Cup and for Croatia at Euro 96 and the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. It was in 1998 that Prosinečki and the Croatian squad won third place in the World Cup, with Prosinečki scoring two goals along the way.

[edit] International goals

Results list Yugoslavia's goal
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 20 September 1989 Stadium of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia  Greece
2 – 0
3 – 0
 Friendly
2 19 June 1990 Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna, Italy  United Arab Emirates
4 – 1
4 – 1
 World Cup 1990
3 12 September 1990 Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland  Northern Ireland
0 – 2
0 – 2
 Euro 1992 Qualifying
4 16 May 1991 Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade, Yugoslavia  Faroe Islands
2 – 0
7 – 0
 Euro 1992 Qualifying
Results list Croatia's goal
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 23 March 1994 Estadio Luís Casanova, Valencia, Spain  Spain
0 – 1
0 – 2
 Friendly
2 25 March 1995 Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia  Ukraine
3 – 0
4 – 0
 Euro 1996 Qualifying
3 26 April 1995 Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia  Slovenia
1 – 0
2 – 0
 Euro 1996 Qualifying
4 2 April 1997 Poljud, Split, Croatia  Slovenia
1 – 0
3 – 3
 World Cup 1998 Qualifying
5 3 June 1998 Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia  Iran
1 – 0
2 – 0
 Friendly
6 6 June 1998 Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia  Australia
3 – 0
7 – 0
 Friendly
7 14 June 1998 Stade Félix Bollaert, Lens, France  Jamaica
1 – 2
1 – 3
 World Cup 1998
8 11 July 1998 Parc des Princes, Paris, France  Netherlands
0 – 1
1 – 2
 World Cup 1998
9 5 September 2001 Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino  San Marino
0 – 2
0 – 4
 World Cup 2002 Qualifying
10 5 September 2001 Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino  San Marino
0 – 4
0 – 4
 World Cup 2002 Qualifying

He is the only player in World Cup history to score for two different national teams. In 1990, he scored one goal for Yugoslavia in a group match against the United Arab Emirates and eight years later he added two goals for Croatia by scoring in a group match against Jamaica and in the third place match against the Netherlands. He played in a total of nine World Cup matches, three for Yugoslavia in 1990 and six for Croatia in 1998 and 2002.

[edit] Honours

[edit] International

[edit] Club

[edit] Individual

[edit] Coaching career

Prosinečki began his coaching career in 2006 as an assistant to head coach Slaven Bilić at the Croatian national football team.

[edit] Red Star Belgrade

In December 2010 during the mid-season winter break in 2010-11 Serbian Superliga, Prosinečki was announced as the new head coach of Red Star Belgrade. Returning to the club of his biggest playing successes, the announcement made major headlines all over the Balkans[14][15] and also generated plenty of buzz in the rest of Europe.[16][17][18][19][20][21] The angle of Prosinečki being the first Croatian to coach in Serbia following the Yugoslav Wars also got a lot of attention.[22][23] His annual sallary was not officially disclosed, however, Serbian press speculated with figures from US$100,000 to $250,000 per year.[24]

Fifteen matches into the season, the famous yet recently beleaguered Serbian club was in second place, five points behind league leaders FK Partizan. Red Star brass led by club president Vladan Lukić (Prosinečki's former teammate at Marakana) thus steered clear of stating league title as an explicit requirement for the club legend, still, it was understood that making an outside run at the title remained a priority. Prosinečki announced his intent to mold Red Star into an attacking team that utilizes short-passing game to break down opponents, picking Slobodan Marović and Žarko Đurović (also Red Star colleagues from playing days) to be his assistants. Immediately, however, the issue of Prosinečki's pro coaching licence came up when it was discovered that he may not yet meet criteria for one, which according to Serbian Superliga rules would preclude him from being physically present on the sidelines during official matches. The things were straightened out by the time league restarted and Prosinečki's bench debut, which was scheduled to take place versus FK Smederevo at Marakana on 26 February 2011.

However, due to heavy snowfall and extreme cold in Serbia, the entire league restart got pushed back by a week so that the match ended up being played on Saturday, 5 March 2011. Red Star won 1-0 on a penalty kick by Cadú with 18,742 fans in the stands - the club's second biggest home crowd of the season, only behind the derby versus Partizan on 23 October 2010 that drew 31,135. Prosinečki's team continued in winning fashion beating FK Inđija, FK Jagodina, and BSK Borča in the next three rounds, which combined with Partizan drawing 2-2 away at Rad allowed Red Star to reduce the crno-beli lead to 3 points. The talk of title was now officially reignited as confident Prosinečki did away with diplomatic caution, openly stating in the press for the first time that the team is after both titles - in the league and in the cup.[25] Red Star kept up the pressure with three more wins versus Javor, Čukarički, and Metalac, and it paid off as Partizan slipped up again, this time losing at home versus Vojvodina. The two teams were now tied on points at the top of the table as both recorded big wins in the next round, before meeting one another on 23 April 2011. Shaping up as the league decider, the 140th Eternal Derby at Partizan Stadium featured a lot gamesmanship before the big match. At the showdown on Partizan's ground, Red Star played a great first half and was very unlucky not to score as the half finished 0-0. After the restart, Prosinečki's team faded inexplicably as Partizan scored through Prince Tagoe and held on until the end. Partizan's lead was again back to 3 points, as Prosinečki got forced back to the drawing board with only six matches remaining in the season.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Relationship with Ćiro Blažević

During late 1980s and early 1990s, parallel with Prosinečki's rise to football superstardom at Red Star Belgrade, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona as well as Yugoslav and Croatian national teams, the story of him being chased away from Dinamo Zagreb in 1987 by the famous coach Ćiro Blažević grew in Croatian and Yugoslav media and public. To this day it is often cited and referenced as an example of football mismanagement, poor judgement, and bad work with youth categories.[26] Colourful Blažević, the villain of the piece, rarely talked on the record about the circumstances of Prosinečki's departure. However, in 2010, Blažević deflected responsibility for the flap by claiming he actually gave the youngster a four-year contract that was eventually, according to Blažević, annulled by Dinamo president Ante Pavlović on a technicality due to not being processed administratively by the subfederation responsible. On the same occasion, Blažević went on to accuse Prosinečki's father Đuro of not negotiating in good faith with Dinamo by saying "he already had his combination with Red Star". Asked about his famous quote about eating his diploma if Prosinečki ever became a player, Blažević responded that he only used it as a motivation tool.[27]

Blažević and Prosinečki would reignite their simmering feud eleven years later during the 1998 World Cup where they were part of the Croatian national team that made it all the way to the third-place play-off. In the semifinal match that Croatia lost 1-2 versus eventual winners France after going ahead 1-0, Blažević decided to leave 29-year-old Prosinečki on the bench (he eventually entered the contest in the 90th minute, coming on for Mario Stanić), which led to a lot of criticism.

[edit] Court case versus Dinamo

In the summer of 1997, 28-year-old Prosinečki came back to Zagreb in order to play for the club where he started his professional career. Now called Croatia Zagreb, the club was turned into a state project bankrolled by the Croatian regime's highest echelons and personally supported by president Franjo Tuđman. By 2000, Prosinečki left Croatia Zagreb, but in late 2001 decided to initiate a lawsuit against the club (whose name was now restored back to Dinamo after continuous fan protests) over DM1,550,000 (€750,000) in unpaid wages.[28]

Years later in 2009, court ruled against Prosinečki, mostly due to asserting that the lawsuit against Dinamo had no merit since Prosinečki played for Croatia Zagreb, and not Dinamo Zagreb.[29] Commenting on the verdict in late 2009, Prosinečki said he was cheated out of his money.[30]

[edit] References

 This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)
  1. ^ Croatia back among the big boys
  2. ^ "Umro otac Robija Prosinečkog" (in Croatian). index.hr. 30 July 2003. http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/umro-otac-robija-prosineckog/151229.aspx. Retrieved 24 December 2010. 
  3. ^ Nedeljković, D. (10 December 2010). "Emilija Prosinečki: Raduje me što je moj Robert opet u Srbiji!" (in Serbian). Press. http://sportservis.pressonline.rs/wsw/index.php?p=71&ni=16561. Retrieved 11 December 2010. 
  4. ^ Trtović, V. (20 May 2011). "Šumadija na nogama: Ježevica dočekuje svog Robija" (in Serbian). Press. http://sportservis.name/wsw/index.php?p=71&ni=22586. Retrieved 20 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Flak, Igor (15 March 2010). "Genijalci Prosinečki i Pjanić raskrinkali su Ćirinu taštinu" (in Croatian). Večernji list. http://www.vecernji.hr/kolumne/genijalci-prosinecki-pjanic-raskrinkali-su-cirinu-tastinu-kolumna-110780. Retrieved 24 December 2010. 
  6. ^ Jajčinović, Milan (20 November 1998). "Hrvatski jal" (in Croatian). Vjesnik. http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/1998/11/20/Gledista.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2008. 
  7. ^ Jurišić, Predrag (25 June 2000). "Drugi odlazak "Velikog Žutog" - najtužniji dan za hrvatski nogomet" (in Croatian) (PDF). Vjesnik. http://www.vjesnik.com/pdf/2000%5C06%5C25%5C11A11.PDF. Retrieved 5 September 2008. 
  8. ^ Džajić: Najbitnije da Prosinečki sruši Partizan;Večernje novosti, 10 December 2010
  9. ^ Wilson, Jonathan (24 July 2007). "Yugoslavia in the 90s: the greatest team there never was?". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/jul/24/newsstory.sport9. Retrieved 25 December 2010. 
  10. ^ Nuri Sahin: A new crystal player?;from MARCA, 2 September 2011
  11. ^ Kranjčar: Prosinečki je presudio - Sport - Net.hr
  12. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/prosinecki-intl.html
  13. ^ "Vecernji list" Player of the Year
  14. ^ Prosinečki: Zvezda je veliki izazov i želim postati njen trener;index.hr, 5 December 2010
  15. ^ Robert Prosinečki je trener Crvene zvezde;sarajevo-x.com, December 2010
  16. ^ Crvena Zvezda look to old hero Prosinečki;uefa.com, 9 December 2010
  17. ^ Robert Prosinecki faces tough task to orchestrate Red Star revolution;The Guardian Blog, 14 December 2010
  18. ^ Prosinecki to coach Red Star;fifa.com, 9 December 2010
  19. ^ World Football - Prosinecki takes Red Star reins;Eurosport, 9 December 2010
  20. ^ Portsmouth old boy Robert Prosinecki named new coach of Red Star Belgrade;Daily Mail, 10 December 2010
  21. ^ Official: Robert Prosinecki Named New Red Star Belgrade Coach;goal.com, 10December 2010
  22. ^ Ex-Portsmouth star Prosinecki bridging divide with Red Star Belgrade job;tribalfootball.com, 11 December 2010
  23. ^ Beograd je uvijek bio Robijev grad, a Zvezda njegov klub;index.hr, 8 December 2010
  24. ^ Prosinečki već "zna" postavu Zvezde;mondo.rs, 10 December 2010
  25. ^ "Želim osvojiti dvostruku krunu";sarajevo-x.com, 22 March 2011
  26. ^ Flak, Igor (15 March 2010). "Genijalci Prosinečki i Pjanić raskrinkali su Ćirinu taštinu" (in Croatian). Večernji list. http://www.vecernji.hr/kolumne/genijalci-prosinecki-pjanic-raskrinkali-su-cirinu-tastinu-kolumna-110780. Retrieved 24 December 2010. 
  27. ^ Ćiro otkrio tajnu kako je Prosinečki završio u Zvezdi!;net.hr, 4 June 2010
  28. ^ Prosinečki tuži Dinamo zbog neisplaćenih 1,550.000 DEM;Vjesnik, 20 November 2001
  29. ^ Prosinečki: Kao da nikad nisam igrao za Dinamo;net.hr, 13 November 2009
  30. ^ net.hr interview;December 2009

[edit] External links

Red Star Belgrade – managers
(c) caretaker
Red Star Belgrade – current squad


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