Vujadin Boškov

Vujadin Boškov
Boškov winning the Dutch Cup with Den Haag in May 1975.
Personal information
Full name Vujadin Boškov
Date of birth (1931-05-16)16 May 1931
Place of birth Begeč, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Date of death 27 April 2014(2014-04-27) (aged 82)
Place of death Novi Sad, Serbia
Playing position Right winger
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1946–1960 FK Vojvodina 185 (15)
1961–1962 Sampdoria 13 (0)
1962–1964 SC Young Fellows Juventus
National team
1951–1958 Yugoslavia 57 (0)
Teams managed
1962–1964 SC Young Fellows Juventus (player/coach)
1964–1971 FK Vojvodina (technical director)
1966 Yugoslavia (co-coach)
1971–1973 Yugoslavia
1974–1976 FC Den Haag
1976–1978 Feyenoord
1978–1979 Real Zaragoza
1979–1982 Real Madrid
1982–1984 Sporting Gijón
1984–1986 Ascoli
1986–1992 Sampdoria
1992–1993 A.S. Roma
1994–1996 Napoli
1996–1997 Servette Geneva
1997–1998 Sampdoria
1999 Perugia
1999–2000 FR Yugoslavia
2001 FR Yugoslavia (co-coach)
2006 Sampdoria (scout)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Vujadin Boškov (Serbian Cyrillic: Вујадин Бошков, pronounced [ʋujǎdin bǒʃkoʋ]; 16 May 1931 – 27 April 2014) was a Serbian footballer and coach.

Throughout his career as a football manager, he stood out both for his many successes, as well as due to his unique sense of humour and memorable ironic comments, which were used to dissolve tension during post-match interviews; these led him to become a popular figure with football fans during his time in Italy.[1][2]

Club career

Boškov was born in the village of Begeč, 10 km from Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. He comes from a Serbian family who lived in Novi Sad (he was officially born in Petrovaradin) before moving to Begeč during the Second War where his grandfather lived. His elder brother was also a football player but died early. Vujadin had two sisters Vera and Dada, the latter still living. He remained loyal to his local team and played with FK Vojvodina for most of his career (1946–1960), as well as continuously supporting it. In gratitude the FK Vojvodina training facility in Veternik is named after him. He joined the Yugoslav team that won against the Soviet Union at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. He is still remembered in a photo with the Dinamo Zagreb team in "Charlie's" café in Zagreb, as a great Yugoslav football player. In 1961 he moved to Italy to play for Serie A club Sampdoria for one season (1961–62), before accepting a stint as a player-coach at Swiss side Young Boys (1962–1964).[3] Boškov then returned to the club that made him as a player – FK Vojvodina – and spent seven seasons (1964–1971) as a technical director, leading the club to winning one Yugoslav league championship in 1965–66. Vujadin Boskov was well known in Italy as a gentleman and a cosmopolitan all his life. Corriere dello sport published his quotations e.g. "Quando l'arbitro fischia... it is a penalty". There is a book of his quotations published in Italy. He spoke several languages and lived all over Europe.

International career

He also became a playing member of the Yugoslavia national team, and was part of the team that won the silver medal at the 1952 Olympic football tournament. Also he played at the 1954 and 1958 FIFA World Cups.[4]

Managerial career

“Penalty is when referee whistles.”

— An example of one of Boškov's humorous quips in interviews.[2]

Boškov soon developed a successful international coaching career with stints in Dutch Eredivisie (FC Den Haag (1974–1976), and Feyenoord (1976–1978)), Spanish La Liga (Real Zaragoza (1978–79), Real Madrid (1979–1982), and Sporting de Gijon (1983–84)), Italian Serie A (Ascoli Calcio 1898 (1984–1986), U.C. Sampdoria (1986–1992, 1997–98), A.S. Roma (1992–93), S.S.C. Napoli (1994–1996), and A.C. Perugia (1999)), and Swiss league (Servette Geneva (1996–97)).

“In addition to being a great coach, he was a great psychologist and a very intelligent person.”

— Goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca on his former Sampdoria coach Boškov.[2]

Arguably his greatest achievement as a coach came in 1991, when he steered Sampdoria to the Serie A scudetto. The following season, he led the club to the European Cup final, where they lost 1–0 to Barcelona at Wembley.[1]

He also coached Yugoslavia at Euro 2000, where they famously lost 4–3 to Spain in Brugge and later went out to hosts the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, after losing 6–1 to the Dutch.[1]

Managerial statistics

Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
PWDLWin %
Vojvodina July 1964 June 1971 252 93 75 84 036.90
Yugoslavia April 1971 October 1973 27 10 12 5 037.04
Den Haag June 1974 July 1976 81 31 25 25 038.27
Feyenoord July 1976 June 1978 80 32 26 22 040.00
Real Zaragoza July 1978 May 1979 46 19 9 18 041.30
Real Madrid August 1979 March 1982 139 80 31 28 057.55
Sporting de Gijon July 1982 June 1984 79 27 24 28 034.18
Ascoli November 1984 June 1986 63 23 27 13 036.51
Sampdoria July 1986 June 1992 289 139 90 60 048.10
Roma July 1992 June 1993 51 19 18 14 037.25
Napoli October 1994 June 1996 66 22 21 23 033.33
Servette Geneva July 1996 December 1996 22 5 9 8 022.73
Sampdoria November 1997 June 1998 26 10 7 9 038.46
Perugia February 1999 June 1999 14 5 2 7 035.71
Yugoslavia July 1999 July 2000 15 6 5 4 040.00
Yugoslavia May 2001 October 2001 8 4 2 2 050.00
Total 1,258 525 383 350 041.73

Honours

Manager

FK Vojvodina (as the club's director of football)
ADO Den Haag
Real Madrid
Ascoli
Sampdoria

Death

Boškov died after long illness in Novi Sad, on 27 April 2014, aged 82.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Europe mourns Serbia great Boškov". UEFA. 27 April 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Remembering the great Boskov". Football Italia. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Ex-Yugoslavia, Real coach Boskov dies - FIFA
  4. ↑ Vujadin Boškov – FIFA competition record (archive)
  5. ↑ Preminuo Vujadin Boškov; Mondo, 27 April 2014
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