Radomir Antić

Antić started his playing career with Sloboda Titovo Užice (1967–1970) and then moved to the club where he would play most of his career, Partizan (1970–1977). With Partizan, he won the national Championship in 1976. In the summer of 1977, Antić signed for Fenerbahçe in Turkey. He spent one season in Istanbul before moving to the Spanish La Liga, where he played for Real Zaragoza. In 1980, Antić moved on to Luton Town, a team in England's Second Division (which was then the second tier). Known in England as "Raddy", he helped Luton to the Second Division title in 1982, and stayed with the club for two seasons in the top division before leaving in 1984. At the end of the 1982–83 season, he played a key role in saving Luton from relegation, scoring a winning goal four minutes from time in the final League match of the season, away against Manchester City. City, the home team, were themselves relegated as a result. At full-time, Luton manager David Pleat ran across the pitch, hopping and waving his arms wildly in celebration. Already in his 30s when he arrived at Luton, Antić already looked to coaching as a career option once his playing days are finished. While an active player in England, he enrolled in and completed the coaching college in Belgrade, Viša trenerska škola. In that regard, he often cites Pleat as an influence on his later coaching style. After helping save Luton's First Division status, Antić spent one more season at Kenilworth Road before retiring at age…

Early career

After finishing his playing career at age 36, Antić started a career in coaching as an assistant with Partizan (1985–87), working under head coach Nenad Bjeković. Partizan won the 1985–86 league title amid a match-fixing controversy. They also won the 1986–87 league. In early July 1987, Fahrudin Jusufi was brought in as the new head coach and initially Antić continued his assistant role. For the pre-season training ahead of the 1987–88 season, the team went abroad where Jusufi and Antić got into a row over player personnel issues that resulted in Antić being essentially demoted to the position of Partizan under-16 youth team (cadet squad) coach.

Real Zaragoza

Antić's first head coaching position was with Real Zaragoza. In addition to formerly playing for the club, his appointment owed a lot to being recommended for the job by countryman Vujadin Boškov, who had been successfully leading the Italian side Sampdoria at the time while also enjoying a lot of clout in Spain having led Zaragoza (coached Antić there for two years) and other La Liga clubs during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The squad was a fairly modest one without any really big names; the most notable players being the aging Spanish international midfielder Juan Señor and forward Miguel Pardeza who came up through Real Madrid's youth system as part of La Quinta del Buitre generation. The biggest summer signing was twenty-six-year-old striker Nasko Sirakov from Levski Sofia who had…

Antić was born in Žitište to a Serb family (father Jovo Antić from the Janj area near Šipovo and mother Milka Brkić from the Grmeč region) that had settled in the small Banat town shortly before his birth. Born as the second son in the family, Radomir had an older brother Dragomir, two years his senior. The newborn was named after his maternal uncle Radomir "Rade" Brkić, a notable World War II Partisan guerrilla fighter who, in 1953, would be awarded the Order of the People's Hero gallantry medal for the engagement. During the mid-1950s, when young Radomir was six years old, the family moved to Titovo Užice, a city where Antić grew up and considered to be his hometown. After the family's arrival to Titovo Užice, another child, daughter Mira, was born.

Antić was married to Vera, with whom he had two children: a daughter Ana (married to basketball player Nikola Lončar) and a son Dušan (who is married to Mirjana). Antić had four grandchildren: two grandsons (Marko and Radomir) and two granddaughters (Ivan and Petra). Antić lived in Madrid and Marbella in Spain.

Defamation suit

During the 1995–96 double title season in Spain, Antić had a notable public spat with the Spanish political columnist Hermann Tertsch of El País daily. In an interview with journalist Carmen Rigalt, published on 10 September 1995 in El Mundo, Antić took issue with the views expressed by Tertsch. Seeing Tertsch's views and coverage of the Yugoslav Wars as anti-Serbian, Antić referred to the columnist as a "Nazi". Tertsch in turn sued Antić for slander and received a court ruling in his favour in the amount of ESP2 million. Following appeals, the case even went before the Spanish Supreme Court that confirmed in mid-November 2003 the original ruling in Tertsch's favour, thus ordering Antić to pay the euro equivalent of the originally awarded amount, approximately €12,000.