Dragan Talajić

Dragan Talajić
Personal information
Full name Dragan Talajić
Date of birth (1965-08-25) 25 August 1965
Place of birth Sarajevo, SFR Yugoslavia
Playing position Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1992–1993 Izola 3 (0)
1993–1995 Zeytinburnuspor 26 (0)
1996–1997 Orijent 32 (0)
1997–2001 Tanjong Pagar United Football Club 67 (0)
Teams managed
2004 Al Ittihad
2005–2006 Bahrain Riffa
2006–2007 East Riffa
2007–2009 Al Nahda
2009–2010 Shabab Al Ordon
2010–2011 Al-Wahdat
2011–2012 Kuwait SC
2012 Ittihad Kalba'
2013–2014 Dhofar
2014–2016 Muangthong United

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (goals)

Dragan Talajić (born 25 August 1965 in Sarajevo) is a Croatian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper and is a football manager who has managed many clubs in Middle East and Thailand. For the season 2010-2011 Talajić was declared Best Coach of Asia and Best Coach of Arabic football world 2010-2011 by the television giant Al Jazeera Sport TV, Best Coach of Arabic football world 2010-2011 by MBC Sport TV and Best Coach of Jordan 2010-2011 by votes of people and Press. Talajić is a holder of the UEFA PRO Licence.

Club career

Talajić had a spell with Zeytinburnuspor in the Turkish Super Lig during the 1994-95 season.[1] Dragan started in FK Sarajevo and was one of the brightest young talents of Yugoslav football. As a junior player for FK Sarajevo, Dragan Talajić broke the record of the great Yugoslav goalkeeper Slobodan Janjuš by having received only one goal in the whole season. In 1992-93 Talajić was a part of a historic Slovenian football story having played a UEFA Cup match against Benfica for a Slovenian side MNK Izola. His great goalkeeping in UEFA Cup lead to a transfer to Turkish Super Lig. After a short spell with NK Orijent in Croatia's Prva HNL, from 1997 to the end of his career Talajić played for Tanjong Pagar United FC in Singapore's S-League. Talajić left a big mark in Singaporean football, since he was twice selected the player of the year.

Career as manager

Al Ittihad

At the age of 39, Talajić won the AFC Champions League 2004 in his first match as a manager of Al-Ittihad (KSA).[2] Talajic won in the final game of AFC Champions League 2004 5-0 in Korea against Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and that is the most remarkable win in the history of Asian Football.

Bahrain Riffa Club & Al-Nahda (RSA)

Following his dismissal from Al-Ittihad, lead Al Riffa from Bahrain to the finals stage of the Gulf Cup in 2005/2006. At the age of 42 Talajić led Saudi club Al Nahda to the final of the Prince Faisal Cup 2007/2008 entering in the history of Saudi football as the first team from second league to play the finals of Prince Faisal Cup.

Shabab Al-Ordon

In the 2009-10 season, Talajić was the coach of Shabab Al-Ordon (Jordan Youth Club) from Amman, Jordan. He led his team to a victory in AFC Cup in Yemen against Al-Ahli Sana'a', drew both home and away against Al-Karmah from Syria, then drew in Oman against Saham and won against Saham in Jordan and qualified to the next round of the AFC Cup, thanks to a win in Jordan against Al-Ahli Sana'a by 6-1.

Al-Wahdat Amman

For the season 2010-2011, Talajić is the head coach of the biggest Jordanian side Al-Wahdat from Amman. His remarkable trophy run began on 6 August 2010 when Talajić won his first trophy of the season with Al-Wahdat winning 2-0 in the finals of the Jordan Shield Cup.

On August 13.2010 Dragan Talajić won the Jordan Super Cup against Al-Wahdat's bitter rival Al- Faisaly. The title win was 10th Super Cup trophy that Al-Wahdat have won in the clubs history.

At the end of season 2010-2011 Talajic's Al-Wahdat finished first winning the Jordan League with 17 point difference between them and Al-Faisaly who finished second. Talajić's Al-Wahdat finished end of season with 16 wins, 3 draw and 1 loss. Including their fixtures in the AFC Cup, where they are through to the quarter-finals, they have won 32 of their 39 games, drawn six and lost just one. In the process they have racked up 82 goals and conceded just 23. Talajić made a remarkable run with 46 games without defeat.

On May the 21. Talajić won the Jordan League Cup as his fourth trophy of the season becoming the first coach in history to win all 4 trophies in one season.

Kuwait SC

In July 2011, Talajić signed a one-year contract with Kuwait SC club from Kuwait. Talajić was brought to Kuwait SC after his remarkable run with Al Wahdat in the season 2010-2011. Talajić led his club to victory at home against Muangthong United winning by 1-0. In Thailand the score was 0-0 and Kuwait SC qualified to the semi-finals of the AFC cup. Talajić was dismissed in the 65' minute in Thailand after entering the pitch to protest to the referee for his disgraceful performance after the Thai players injured 4 Kuwaiti players without receiving any cards for their dirty way of playing. Talajić was later suspended by the Asian Football Federation for one game due to his actions. In the semi-finals of AFC Cup Talajić's Kuwait SC played against Iraqi's Arbil FC. Kuwait won in Iraq with the result 2-0 and played in Kuwait 3-3 to qualify to the AFC Cup Finals. Their opponent in the finals was FC Nasaf Qarshi from Uzbekistan. The finals were played at Qarshi Stadium located in Qarshi, Uzbekistan. FC Nasaf Qarshi had to their advantage the home stadium and fans witch led to a hell of an atmosphere for Talajić's team. The game ended with 2-1 for FC Nasaf Qarshi. On 18 December, Dragan Talajić won the Kuwait Federation Cup beating in the finals Kazma with the result 4-3, in the 50th minute the score was 0-3 in favor of Kazma SC, but Talajić brought in two substitutes and changed the course of the game making the Kuwait Federation Cup finals 2011 more than spectacular. On 8 March 12, Dragan was dismissed as coach of Kuwait SC.

Ittihad Kalba'

He was the coach of Ittihad Kalba' for a very short period time. During his time with Ittihad Kalba' he had to face many big defeats from the giants of UAE Arabian Gulf League. He managed the club for 6 matches, with bad results and Talajic just couldn't find the same language and vision with the club boss, Dragan Talajic left the club with a mutual agreement with the club.

Dhofar

In June 2013, the Omani club Dhofar appointed him as their coach. Dragan was in charge of Omani giant Dhofar who won Oman Professional League record 9 times. He continued the tradition of Dhofar being a biggest club in Sultanate of Oman.

Muangthong United

On July 2nd 2014, Muangthong United have announced that they have signed Talajić as their head coach on a 3-year contract.On 30th of July Talajić led Muangthong United to a 1-1 draw against La Liga side UD Almeria of Spain.Talajić led the club to a 2nd place in Thai Premier League, 2nd place in Thai FA Cup and the qualification for the Asian Champions League 2016. On 19th of January 2016 the agreement was reached between Coach Dragan and the Board to end the contract with the club.[3]

Achievements as manager

Honors

Declarations

Performances

  • Runner-up
  • Runner-up

References

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