Ante Šimundža

Šimundža started his career at hometown club Železničar Maribor at the age of eleven, and moved to NK Maribor after Slovenia's independence in 1991. He stayed there for six seasons, scoring 64 league goals in 170 appearances. He played for a number of different foreign clubs between 1997 and 1998, however, plagued by constant ankle injuries he soon returned to Maribor. There he was an important part of Maribor's qualification to the UEFA Champions League during the 1999–2000 season. He was the scorer of the winning goal in the first round of the group stage when Maribor defeated Dynamo Kyiv 1–0, which is to date the only victory of any Slovenian club in this phase of the competition. In 2001, he again moved abroad and played for La Louvière, before returning to his native country and finishing his professional career with Aluminij and Šmartno ob Paki. Šimundža has made a total of 256 Slovenian PrvaLiga appearances, scoring 87 goals in the process. Considered a Maribor club legend, he is tied with Gregor Židan as a player with the most appearances for the club during the 1990s.

Šimundža made three appearances for the Slovenia national team between 1993 and 1999.

Šimundža began his coaching career at his hometown club Železničar Maribor, where he was coaching youth selections. He started his senior coaching career in 2007, when he was appointed as an assistant coach of Pavel Pinni at Celje. In 2008, he became an assistant of Darko Milanič at Maribor. He was part of Maribor's sports department until 2011 when he was selected as a head coach of Mura 05. His season with Mura 05 was impressive and he turned the team around, changing it from a relegation contender to the eventual UEFA competitions qualifier, as the club finished third during the 2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga season. By the end of his first season as head coach, he was nominated for the best coach in the league. He then accepted an offer from Austrian side GAK, signing with the club in June 2012. However, the club went bankrupt a few months later and Šimundža returned to Mura 05 in early 2013. After the 2012–13 season, Mura 05 also went bankrupt, and Šimundža took over the Slovenian Second League side Aluminij in June 2013. In September 2013, Šimundža was appointed as the new manager of Slovenian champions Maribor. With Maribor, he won two national titles (2013–14 and 2014–15), and also qualified for the group stages of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League. He resigned in August 2015 after losing 3–0 at home against Maribor's biggest rivals, Olimpija Ljubljana. In June 2017, Šimundža once again took charge at Mura. With the club, he won the 2019–20 edition of the Slovenian…

Šimundža was born in Maribor, present day Slovenia, as the youngest of two children, with his sister being six years older than him. His father was a Croat from Split and his mother a Slovene from Kidričevo. He is married and has two sons, Luka and Jure, who were named after their grandfathers.