Miljan Miljanić

Yugoslavia national team

Miljanić had three stints as the head coach of the Yugoslavia national team, 1965–66, 1973–74 and 1979–82. He coached the national team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the 1982 FIFA World Cup. By 1992, the team was coached by Bosnian Ivica Osim, during whose tenure Yugoslavia had qualified to UEFA Euro 1992. However, with his family under the siege of Sarajevo, Osim resigned on 23 May. To replace him, the Yugoslav federation called a duo of Miljanić and Ivan Čabrinović, a Serb married with a Muslim woman. One day later, it was announced the squad list. Under Miljanić and Čabrinović, Yugoslavia played just one unofficial friendly against the club Fiorentina, in Florence, for a minor attendance and under huge protests, on 28 May. It was known by that day the rumor that Yugoslavia would be banned of the tournament due to Yugoslav wars, to which Miljanić, disgusted with increasingly questions about his players origins rather than their efficiency, reacted with wet eyes: "are we not welcomed? What? They do not want us anymore?". On 31 May, with the squad already in Sweden, the ban was confirmed, just ten days before the opening match.

Real Madrid

Miljanić's arrival to Real during the summer 1974 transfer window came on the heels of a turbulent season that saw the famous club make a coaching change after almost 14 seasons of Miguel Muñoz at the helm. The longtime coach's mid-season replacement Luis Molowny didn't fare well, losing 5–0 at…

Miljanić was born in 1930 in Bitola, a town his geometer father Akim Miljanić had moved the family to two years earlier in 1928 after finding employment there. Previously, in 1922, Akim had arrived to Belgrade from Montenegro's Banjani region in order to study at the newly opened Geodesy School. The family also consisted of mother Zorka and sisters Mira and Nada. In 1941, with Nazi Germany invading, conquering, and dismembering Kingdom of Yugoslavia into territories administered by newly established local collaborationist regimes or neighbouring Axis powers states, the Miljanićs were forced into fleeing Bitola by the occupying Bulgarian force that had been handed the territory of Vardar Banovina by the Nazis. The fleeing family first settled in the town of Jagodina followed by relocating to Kragujevac, a city reeling from the October 1941 massacre of more than 2,700 civilians committed by the Wehrmacht force. In 1944, in Kragujevac, 14-year-old Miljanić reportedly joined the Yugoslav Partisans. Following the end of World War II, the family moved to Belgrade in 1946.

Miljanić was married to Olivera "Vera" Reljić with whom he had two children: son Miloš Miljanić (former footballer and current manager of Alianza F.C. of El Salvador) and daughter Zorka. He died on 13 January 2012, aged 81, in Belgrade, Serbia after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years. Mourning the loss of the club's former great, on 14 January, Real Madrid side coached by José Mourinho played their away league match at Real Mallorca with Madrid players wearing black armbands.

Manager

Red Star Belgrade

Yugoslav First League: 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1972–73 Yugoslav Cup: 1967–68, 1969–70, 1970–71 Yugoslav Super Cup: 1969, 1971 Yugoslav League Cup: 1972-73 Yugoslav Summer Champions League: 1971, 1973 Mitropa Cup: 1967–68 Real Madrid

La Liga: 1974–75, 1975–76 Copa del Generalísimo: 1974–75

Individual

FIFA Order of Merit: 2002 Don Balón Award: 1976