Mišo Smajlović

Drago "Mišo" Smajlović (Bosnian pronunciation: [drǎːɡo mǐːʃo smǎjloʋitɕ]; born 28 October 1938) is a Bosnian retired professional football manager and former player.

Mišo Smajlović
Personal information
Full name Drago Smajlović
Date of birth (1938-10-28) 28 October 1938
Place of birth Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
0000–1955 Sloga Sarajevo
1955–1958 Željezničar
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1958–1967 Željezničar 166 (88)
1967–1968 Standard Liège 21 (5)
1968–1969 Olimpija Ljubljana 14 (4)
1969–1971 Čelik Zenica 19 (3)
Total 220 (100)
National team
1963–1964 Yugoslavia 4 (1)
Teams managed
1988 Toronto Croatia
1988–1989 Željezničar (caretaker)
1989–1991 Željezničar
1994–1997 Željezničar
1998 Bosnia and Herzegovina U21
2000–2002 Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Smajlović began his career in Sloga, a small amateur club from Sarajevo. In 1955 he moved to the youth team of Željezničar. Two years later, Smajlović signed a professional contract with Željezničar in which he played more than 400 games and scored 241 goals. If considering only official matches, he played 190 games and scored 97 goals. Smajlović was the top goalscorer of the 1962–63 Yugoslav First League season with 18 goals.

In 1967, he went abroad to Belgium to play at Standard Liège. After a season and a half in Belgium, Smajlović returned to Yugoslavia and continued playing for Olimpija Ljubljana and Čelik Zenica after which he ended his professional playing career.

International career

Smajlović was a fine striker, one of the best in Yugoslavia at the time. He played for youth national teams and the "B team", before making his debut for the senior Yugoslav national team in 1963. He collected four caps for Yugoslavia, scoring one goal.

Smajlović is remembered as a great sportsman. Journalists often called him a gentleman in the football shoes. Unfortunately, the fact that Smajlović did not play for one of the bigger Yugoslav clubs limited his chances of being a regular choice in the national team.

Managerial career

After his playing days were over, Smajlović dedicated himself to a managerial career. In 1988, he was invited to Canada and soon after was named manager of Toronto Croatia in the National Soccer League.[1] Smajlović was the manager of his former club Željezničar on several occasions. He also worked as a sporting director in the club. It is important to say that he was among the responsible ones for saving Željezničar going bankrupt during the Bosnian War.

In 1997, he was elected to be a head coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina U21 national team. After Faruk Hadžibegić stepped down as senior Bosnia and Herzegovina national team head coach in October 1999, Smajlović was first appointed as a caretaker head coach and several months later, in 2000, he was definitely elected as head coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. After the end of his contract in 2002, Smajlović never renewed it.

He ultimately decided to end his managerial career after leaving the national team.

Honours

Player

Željezničar

Čelik Zenica[2]

Individual

Performance

References
  1. Sopta, Marin. "Istaknuti nogometaši i treneri hrvatskog iseljeništva - treći dio" (in Croatian). Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  2. Mitropa Cup at rsssf.com
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