Radomir Antić

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Radomir Antić
Personal information
Full name	Radomir Antić
Date of birth	November 22, 1948 (age 58)
Place of birth	Žitište, FPR Yugoslavia
Nickname	Antara, Raddy
Playing position	Manager
Club information
Current club	vacant
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1967-1968 1968-1976 1976-1978 1978-1979 1979-1984	Sloboda Užice FK Partizan Fenerbahçe Real Zaragoza Luton Town F.C.	? (0) ? (0) ? (0) 58 (7) ? (0)
Teams managed
1988-1991 1991-1992 1992-1995 1995-1998 1999 2000 2000-2001 2003 2004	Real Zaragoza Real Madrid Real Oviedo Atlético Madrid Atlético Madrid Atlético Madrid Real Oviedo FC Barcelona Celta de Vigo
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Radomir "Raddy" Antić (born November 22, 1948) is a Serbian former player and current football manager who has managed FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Real Zaragoza 2.2 Real Madrid 2.3 Real Oviedo 2.4 Atlético Madrid 2.5 Second time 2.6 Third time 2.7 Real Oviedo, again 2.8 FC Barcelona 2.9 Celta de Vigo

[edit] Playing career

Antić was born in Žitište, Vojvodina, Serbia, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He started his playing career with FK Sloboda Užice (1967-1968) and then moved to the club where he would play most of his career, Partizan Belgrade (1968-1976).

In the summer of 1976 he signed for Fenerbahçe. He spent two seasons in Istanbul before moving to La Liga where he played for Real Zaragoza.

In 1979 Antić moved on to Luton Town, staying until 1984. In 1983 he scored the goal which saved them from relegation out of the top division, just four minutes form the end of thefinal match of the season. Ironically the game was against Manchester City, who were relegated as a result.

[edit] Managerial career

Antic started his coaching career as an assistant with Partizan Belgrade (1985-88), working alongside head coaches Nenad Bjeković and later Fahrudin Jusufi.

[edit] Real Zaragoza

Antić's first head coaching job was with Real Zaragoza. His La Liga coaching debut came on September 4, 1988 in a game versus Valencia CF that ended in a scoreless draw. The club finished the season in 5th place, qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

He ended up spending three seasons (1988-1991) managing a club he also turned out for as a player.

[edit] Real Madrid

Real Madrid came calling during summer of 1991 and Antić spent most of the 1991/92 season coaching the Spanish giants. With Emilio Butragueño, Míchel, Manuel Sanchís, and Gheorghe Hagi as the club's established stars, Antić brought Robert Prosinečki, prominent member of the Red Star Belgrade's 1991 European Cup winning side, as well as promising 21-year-old Luís Enrique from Sporting de Gijón.

The way Antić got fired towards the end of the season in 1992 showed the full range of club politics as well as the dog-eat-dog nature of top club coaching. He was enjoying a good run as the club's coach when then Real president Ramón Mendoza brought Leo Beenhakker into the organization in a vaguely defined role of a sporting director. In a matter of weeks Antić was sacked and replaced with Beenhakker. Real was holding the top spot in La Liga at the time of Antić's firing.

Proving perhaps that what goes around comes around, led by Beenhakker, Real squandered a seven-point lead to be robbed of the title by bitter rivals FC Barcelona on the last day of the season.

[edit] Real Oviedo

Antić was hired to coach Real Oviedo after the club's brass fired previous longtime coach Javier Irureta after week 13 of the 1992/93 season. He completed that season with the club and remained for two more after that.

[edit] Atlético Madrid

Antić's greatest coaching successes are undoubtedly tied to Atlético Madrid.

His first stint with the club lasted three seasons (1995-98). The squad he took over in summer 1995 was a talented one, but with a reputiation of continuous underachievement. It featured the quality core of José Luis Caminero, Kiko Narváez, Diego Simeone, and Luboslav Penev to which Antić added unheralded Milinko Pantić who quickly turned out to be the missing midfield piece this team needed. Under Antić's command, the squad gelled together masterfully en route to an impressive and historic La Liga/Copa del Rey double in 1995/96 season.

Winning the double endeared Antić to Atlético faithful and more importantly to club's controversial president Jesús Gil. Notorious for quickly going through coaches, Gil kept Antić at the helm of his team for two more seasons (three consecutive seasons in total) - a record of sorts considering Gil's triggerhappy nature when it came to gaffers.

For the 1997/98 season Gil invested heavily into the team, bringing the Italian superstar Christian Vieri fresh from winning the Serie A with Juventus. Naturally the expectetations were high, and when Atletico started sputtering in La Liga, the rumblings about Antić's possible dissmissal were heard for the first time. When Atlético got eliminated by S.S. Lazio at the semifinal stage of 1997/98 UEFA Cup, Gil launched into an obscenity-laced tirade against Spanish television for reporting he has lined up an Italian coach to replace Antić.

In the end that is exactly what happened as he was let go at season's end during the summer of 1998 to make way for Arrigo Sacchi.

[edit] Second time

However, Antić wouldn't be away from Atlético for long as Sacchi got sacked mid-season 1998/99 and the Serb returned for a second stint that lasted until the end of the season. The repeat of league success proved elusive, but he managed to lead the team all the way to Copa del Rey final in Sevilla where they ended up losing heavily to Valencia CF (0-3). Antić was again let go at season's end, and eventually replaced with Claudio Ranieri.

[edit] Third time

Antić's third stint at the club, which came during the second part of 1999/00 season (started in February 2000) turned out to be the most difficult. Following Ranieri's dissmisal, Antić took over a squad that was already in a tailspin, and his arrival did little to change matters. They were eliminated from UEFA Cup by RC Lens, but relegation from La Liga came as the most painful blow of all.

[edit] Real Oviedo, again

After his failure to keep Atletico afloat, Antić came back to coach Real Oviedo in the summer of 2000.

Unfortunatelly, it turned out to be another unsuccessful stint for him, and at times full of controversy. Against the wishes and advice of many watchers, Antić signed the aging bad boy of English football Stan Collymore - a move that quickly turned sour as Collymore sideshow had an extremely disruptive influence on the rest of the team.

Following a string of poor results Oviedo was relegated to Segunda División at the end of the season.

[edit] FC Barcelona

Antić joined FC Barcelona in late January 2003 to take over from recently sacked Louis van Gaal. Caretaker manager, Jesus Antonio de la Cruz, took temporary charge of team affairs until Antić took the reins with the famous team occupying the embarrassing 15th spot in La Liga standings, but well placed in the UEFA Champions League second phase. The club's Spanish league position was so weak that mere top-flight survival was put forth as Antić's immediate goal. On the other hand, in Champions League, the expectations were substantial. Inheriting a squad of players he didn't pick himself, Antić wanted some fresh blood by bringing in Juan Pablo Sorín from S.S. Lazio. He also started giving regular first team appearances to young goalie Víctor Valdés.

Antić managed to stabilize the squad and lead it to the 6th place La Liga finish, ensuring UEFA Cup spot. In the Champions League, under Antić, Barca dominated its second phase group, but lost the hard fought quarterfinal tie to Juventus.

Despite all his success in difficult circumstances, Antić was replaced with Frank Rijkaard during the offseason. The coaching change came as part of the general team overhaul initiated by the newly arrived club president Joan Laporta.

[edit] Celta de Vigo

Due to Antić's widely publicised success with Barca, he developed somewhat of a reputation as a crisis coach. It was probably this kind of thinking that led Celta de Vigo to hire him mid-season 2003/04 in difficult circumstances similar to Barca's one year earlier. The team lost 2-5 at home to Real Sociedad dropping to just one point above relegation zone, all of which prompted coach Miguel Ángel Lotina's resignation. Antić took over just three days later. In another similarity to Barca, Celta was also in good shape in UEFA Champions League where it awaited the round-of-16 tie versus Arsenal F.C..

Unfortunatelly, Antić couldn't pull the trick this time around. The squad never gelled together following his arrival on January 29, 2004, and he resigned on March 29, 2004 following a 0-2 home loss to Real Zaragoza that dropped the team to second-last league position. He was in charge of the team in just nine league games, managing to get only seven points. They were also easily eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal (5-2 on aggregate).

Antić's resignation hardly changed matters as Celta got relegated at the end of the season.

He later admitted joining Celta in such circumstances was a mistake and vowed never to accept coaching jobs in mid-season again.

Preceded by Louis van Gaal

FC Barcelona Coach 2003

Succeeded by Frank Rijkaard