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A student of history
Croatia's Blazevic at helm of his own army
Posted: Tuesday July 07, 1998 11:52 AM
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Blazevic is in his fifth year coaching the Croatian team (Allsport) |
PARIS (AP) -- Miroslav Blazevic believes in things like white
scarves, gendarme's hats and his astrologist's charts. There's nothing
haphazard, though, when he plots Croatia's
strategy. A keen student of military history, Blazevic compares game
plans to battle plans. Explaining how his team stunned Germany 3-0 in
the quarterfinals, Blazevic talked of Rommel, the "desert fox" German field
marshal who lost the crucial battle in World War II in northern Africa when
his tanks ran out of fuel. "I wanted to neutralize German fuel --
Oliver Bierhoff can jump as high as he can, but if he doesn't have enough
crosses, he won't achieve anything," Blazevic said after the game.
The veteran coach, who is 63, has a had a long career in former Yugoslavia,
Switzerland, France and
Greece. Blazevic was born in Travnik, in central Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Nicknamed Ciro (pronounced Chee-roh), Blazevic played for Sarajevo, Rijeka
and Dinamo Zagreb, all three in the former Yugoslav top division. He
then went to Switzerland and played for Vevey and Sion, and began his
coaching career in that country. He won the Swiss league title with
Grasshopper Zurich, the cup with Sion and also coached the Swiss national
team before returning to Yugoslavia. In 1982, he guided Dinamo
Zagreb to its only Yugoslav league title. As a lucky charm, he wore a
luck-bringing white scarf to all the games that season. Blazevic
appears attached to things like that. In France, he's wearing a gendarme's
hat, given to him by police in Vittel, the training camp town in eastern
France. He also receives a fax from his astrologist in Zagreb before
every game. So far, the astrologist has been predicting correctly.
An eloquent and shrewd man with a passion for chocolate and cigarettes,
Blazevic is a master motivator, who gets his players bursting with
confidence and enthusiasm. "He knows how to stimulate players to be
part of a team and to work as a team," said Croatian soccer federation boss
Branko Miksa. "He knows the psychology of each player, he knows soccer, and
he knows how to bring the two together." Often given to audacious
exaggerations, Blazevic is said by some critics to be a megalomaniac who
likes to pull all the strings. That earned him another nickname -- Atilla.
When Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Blazevic
returned to Dinamo (now renamed Croatia) -- becoming its president, coach
and majority share owner. He has since given up these duties for a seat on
the club's board. Blazevic coached Nantes in France and was jailed
fo 17 days in 1995 after being implicated in the match-rigging scandal
involving Olympique Marseille. No charges were filed. After Croatia
was knocked out by Germany in the quarterfinals of the 1996 European
Championship, Blazevic resigned, but the Croatian federation didn't accept
it and he stayed on. He's in his fifth year as coach. A fervent
nationalist, Blazevic is rumored to have been tapped personally by Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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