Bojan Prašnikar

Bojan Prašnikar

Personal information
Date of birth	(1953-02-03) 3 February 1953
Place of birth	Šmartno ob Paki, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
–1976	Šmartno
1976–1977	Olimpija	0	(0)
1977–1983	Šmartno
1983–1984	SVG Bleiburg
Managerial career
1984–1989	Elkroj
1989–1991	Celje
1991–1992	Mura
1993–1994	Olimpija
1995–1996	Rudar Velenje
1996–2000	Maribor
2000–2001	Olimpija
2001–2002	Maribor
2002–2004	Slovenia
2004–2005	Mura
2005–2006	AEL Limassol
2006–2007	Primorje
2007–2009	FC Energie Cottbus
2010–2011	Rudar Velenje
2011–2012	Olimpija Ljubljana
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Bojan Prašnikar (born 3 February 1953 in Šmartno ob Paki) is a Slovenian football manager, former player, and the first manager of Slovenia national football team. Prašnikar managed Slovenia national football team three times, between 1991–1993, in 1998, and between 2002–2004.

Playing career

Prašnikar started his professional football career in at his home town club NK Šmartno 1928 where in the 1975–76 season he was the top scorer of the Slovenian League. After that season he moved to Olimpija Ljubljana of Yugoslav First League, spending only one year there before returning to Šmartno, where he played for the next 6 seasons. During this period he was the league's top scorer on three occasions and helped NK Šmartno become Slovenian champions in 1981. In 1983, he transferred to SVG Bleiburg of Austria where he played for one season before retiring.

Coaching career

After retirement, Prašnikar focused on coaching, starting his managerial career at NK Šmartno, before moving on to coach various other clubs – Elkroj, Ingrad Celje, NK Mura, Olimpija Ljubljana (leading them to 2 Slovenian league titles) and Rudar Velenje. His most successful spell however, came while in charge of NK Maribor from 1996 to 2000. Under his guidance, the club won the Slovenian league 4 times and qualified for the group phase of the UEFA Champions League (the only Slovenian club to ever achieve this), after defeating KRC Genk and Olympique Lyon in the qualifying rounds.

Bojan Prašnikar was the manager of the Slovenian national football team during three time spans. After Slovenia's independence in 1991 he was named the first head coach of the national team. He remained in the position until December 1993, when Zdenko Verdenik took charge of the Slovenian affairs until the end of the unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup 1998. Prašnikar was re-installed head coach in December 1997, but his second spell at the helm of Slovenia lasted for only four month as in April 1998 he resigned due to his commitments with Maribor on club-level. He was replaced by Srečko Katanec.

His third spell in charge of the Slovenian national team started in July 2002, when the Football Association of Slovenia appointed him the successor of Katanec after the disappointing first round finish of the national team at the FIFA World Cup 2002 and Katanec's swift resignation. This job lasted until May 2004. Not qualified for the 2004 European Football Championship tournament, the Slovenian FA replaced Prašnikar with Branko Oblak, who was the head coach of the Slovenian U21 at that time.

On 28 September 2007, he was appointed by German Bundesliga outfit Energie Cottbus, who had parted company with head coach Petrik Sander five days earlier. Prašnikar, who was in charge of Primorje Ajdovščina in the Slovenian league before that, signed a deal until June 2010 with the former German Cup finalist. On 30 May 2009 Prašnikar announced his leaving at the end of the season from FC Energie Cottbus, his last game was the 2008–09 Bundesliga relegation playoff game on 31 May 2009 against 1. FC Nürnberg which he lost 5–0 on aggregate. On 6 April 2010, Prašnikar signed a contract until the end of the season with the Slovenian team NK Rudar Velenje.