Ivica Osim

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Bosnian association football player and manager (1941–2022).

Ivan Osim (6 May 1941 – 1 May 2022), best known as Ivica Osim, was a Bosnian professional footballer and football manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football managers of all time, he is also seen as one of the most influential football managers in the former Yugoslavia. As a player, Osim was in the Yugoslavia national team and played at the 1964 Summer Olympics. He also represented Yugoslavia at UEFA Euro 1968, where he won a silver medal and was voted into the Team of the Tournament. As a manager, Osim won a bronze medal with Yugoslavia at the 1984 Summer Olympics as an assistant, and reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup as head coach of the Yugoslavia national team. He also reached the 1984–85 UEFA Cup semi-finals as manager of his hometown club Željezničar. Osim was head coach of the Japan national team, before suffering a stroke in November 2007 and subsequently leaving the post. In April 2011, FIFA announced that he had become president of the interim committee to run the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country was suspended from all international competitions. He served until December 2012. Osim died in May 2022, after years of health issues following his stroke.

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