Slobodan Starčević

Slobodan Starčević (born 14 August 1971) is a Bosnian professional football manager.

Slobodan Starčević
Personal information
Full nameSlobodan Starčević
Date of birth (1971-08-14) 14 August 1971 (age 52)
Place of birthBanja Luka, SR Bosnia, SFR Yugoslavia
Managerial career
YearsTeam
2012–2013Borac Banja Luka
2013Rudar Prijedor
2014–2018Krupa
2018–2019Tuzla City
2019Krupa
2019–2020Radnik Bijeljina
2020–2022Bosnia and Herzegovina U21
30.10.2023-FK Borac Kozarska Dubica

Managerial career

Early career

Starčević started his managerial career in 2010 when he became an assistant manager at Borac Banja Luka. After two years, in 2012, Starčević was named the new manager of Borac. He left the club in May 2013.

After leaving Borac, on 11 June 2013, he became the new manager of Rudar Prijedor.[1] In September 2013, Starčević was sacked after drawing 4 and losing 3 out of 7 matches with Rudar.

Krupa

On 24 January 2014, Starčević became the new manager of Krupa. In May 2014, he won the Second League of RS (Group West) with Krupa, promoting the club to the First League of RS.

In May 2016, Starčević won the club's first ever and historic First League of RS in the 2015–16 season and promoted the club to the Bosnian Premier League.[2]

Starčević once again made Krupa history by leading the club to the 2017–18 Bosnian Cup final in which the club lost to Željezničar in both matches (2–0 at Sarajevo and 2–4 at Krupa na Vrbasu), thus finishing as cup runners-up.[3]

On 31 May 2018, after almost four and a half years as the club's manager and making the best results in the club's history so far, he left Krupa.[4]

Tuzla City

On 12 June 2018, two weeks after leaving Krupa, Starčević became the new manager of newly promoted Bosnian Premier League club Tuzla City, at that time still known as Sloga Simin Han.[5]

His first official win as Tuzla City's manager came on 4 August 2018, in a 0–1 away win against Mladost Doboj Kakanj.[6]

On 23 February 2019, 8 months after being appointed as the club's manager, Starčević left Tuzla City after not making the best results, which culminated with a 0–3 home loss against Sarajevo on the 20. matchday of the 2018–19 Bosnian Premier League season.[7]

Return to Krupa

On 12 March 2019, Starčević came back to the club he had great success with, Krupa. Almost 10 months after leaving the club, he came back with a goal, if possible, to save Krupa from relegation from the Bosnian Premier League, where the club was currently last placed in the 2018–19 season.[8]

In his first game back, Krupa made a good result by drawing 0–0 against Sarajevo on 17 March 2019.[9]

His first win came on 13 April 2019, a 5–2 home win against Čelik Zenica.[10] Even though Krupa made good results with Starčević as the manager and won a reasonable 17 points in 11 league games, it still wasn't enough to escape relegation, as the club finished on 11th place, only 3 points off of safe and 10th placed Tuzla City, the club Starčević managed right before being appointed as the Krupa manager.[11]

He left Krupa for a second time in June 2019, after his contract with the club expired.[12]

Radnik Bijeljina

On 11 November 2019, Starčević was named the new manager of Radnik Bijeljina, replacing Mladen Žižović who was at that position for over two years.[13] In his first game as Radnik manager, Starčević's team beat Mladost Doboj Kakanj in a 0–4 away, league match win on 23 November 2019.[14] His first loss with Radnik came on 1 December 2019, a 0–1 home league loss against Velež Mostar.[15]

Bosnia and Herzegovina U21

On 6 March 2020, it was announced that Starčević had taken over the role of the Bosnia and Herzegovina U21 national team head coach.[16] In his first game as head coach, Bosnia made a good result after beating Wales in a 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification match on 4 September 2020.[17]

Managerial statistics

As of 30 June 2021[18]
Managerial record by team and tenure
TeamFromToRecord
GWDLWin %
Borac Banja Luka18 July 201220 May 2013291397044.83
Rudar Prijedor11 June 201316 September 20137043000.00
Krupa24 January 201431 May 201881312228038.27
Tuzla City12 June 201825 February 2019215511023.81
Krupa13 March 201917 June 201911524045.45
Radnik Bijeljina11 November 201913 January 20203102033.33
Bosnia and Herzegovina U216 March 2020Present8521062.50
Total160604456037.50

Honours

Manager

Krupa

References