At the end of October this year, the Serbian Football Association announced that it would not renew its contract with Muslims and found a new coach to lead the team to the World Cup. At the time, R&F coach Dragan Stojkovic was the most vocal new manager, but after some contacts, the Serbian Football Association announced that it would put acting coach Kirstadic on the right. According to the president of the country's football association, Kokaiza, they originally hoped that Stojkovic would be the manager, but after Fuli offered a high-paying contract extension, they had to give up.
Stojkovich
Almost 3 months ago, Serbia pushed Wales, Ireland and other teams to qualify for the World Cup in Russia as the first place in the group. This is after 8 years, the "Balkan White Eagles" once again reached the final round of the World Cup. As the head coach of this team, Slavoloub Muslim is loved by players and fans alike.
According to the contract, after completing the coaching goal (referring to entering the World Cup in Russia), Muslims can automatically renew their contract with the Serbian Football Association and lead the team to the World Cup finals. But after the World Preliminaries, clashes broke out between Muslims and sporting director Goran Bunevčević. According to Serbia's "Sports Pictures", the main contradiction between these 2 people is concentrated on the recruitment of new people. In Bunevčević's view, Muslims should recruit newcomers such as Miloš Veliković (Bremen), Milinkovic-Savage (Lazio) and Nemania Radonic (Red Star Belgrade) to the national team. Even if these players are not allowed to become the main force, they can feel the atmosphere of the national team and lay the foundation for future succession. But according to the Muslim idea: the current task of the national team is not to train new people, but to play the World Cup well.
Kokeza
After the discord between the two, FA president Kokeza firmly sided with Bunevčević. After persuading the Muslims to no avail, he decisively parted ways with the old coach and began to look for a new manager.
Kokeza and Muslims
According to Sports Pictures, serbia's new manager candidates include Stojkovic, Stanojevic (former Beijing Guoan manager), Jokanovic (Fulham manager), Mikhanovic (Turin manager) and Jovanovic (former Nasr manager). Of these candidates, Stojkovich is the most favored. First of all, Stojkovic is a famous star in the former Yugoslavia and Serbia, enjoying great prestige in the country. Secondly, Stojkovic served in the Serbian Football Association and had personal relations with Kokeza and others. More crucially, the "little devil" (Stojkovic's nickname) achieved impressive coaching results at R&F and was named "Serbia's Coach of the Year" in 2016. Combined with his qualifications, popularity and ability, Stojkovic is indeed the best candidate.
During the international match day in November, the Serbian team played a warm-up match with the Chinese team at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou. Before the start of the match, Stojkovic met with kokeza and Kirstadzic (Serbia's interim manager) and others. As for the contents of the meeting, none of them were disclosed. Prior to this, Guangzhou R&F announced the decision to renew its contract with Stojkovic, and the new contract will end at the end of 2021.
Although Stojkovic has completed the renewal of his contract with R&F, many Serbian media believe that the Football Association still has the opportunity to invite "little devils" to coach. Because in world football, there is no shortage of club and national team "shoulder to shoulder" head coaches.
Stojkovich and Wenger
On 29 December, sporting director Goran Bunevčević officially announced the selection of Serbia's new manager: the former acting coach Kirstadžić was finally "corrected". In this regard, many fans and the media have raised doubts. In order to calm the controversy, Kokaiza had to come forward to explain. According to him, the Serbian Football Association actually wants to invite Stojkovic to coach, but it is really powerless to poach, "I hope that the 'little devil' Dragan Stojkovic will coach the national team, but he has renewed the new contract with Guangzhou R&F on very favorable terms, and we can only cancel this plan." And according to the idea of the sports department, we finally got Mladen Kirstadzic to stay. ”
Kirstadzic remains in office