Years Team Role Football player ?–1976 Smartno Height 1.91 m | 1976–1977 Olimpija Position Coach Name Bojan Prasnikar Children Luka Prasnikar | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1953-02-03) 3 February 1953 (age 62) Place of birth Smartno ob Paki, Slovenia Playing position | ||
PK-TV: Bojan Prasnikar vor dem Spiel gegen Leverkusen
Bojan Prašnikar (born 3 February 1953 in Šmartno ob Paki) is a Slovenian football manager, former player and 1st manager of Slovenia national football team. Prašnikar managed Slovenia national football team three times, 1991-1993, 1998 and 2002-2004.
Contents
- PK TV Bojan Prasnikar vor dem Spiel gegen Leverkusen
- Playing career
- Coaching career
- Personal life
- References
Trial, Scandal and Corruption
The investigative journalist Mitja Lomovsek discovered: Prasnikar received a 10,000 (ten thousand) DM bribe from players agent Miran Vuk. The cash transfer took place at a gas station in Tepanja (between the capital Ljubljana and Maribor). Bojan Prasnikar lost two trials against the journalist. The judge believed the testimony of the witnesses Miran Vuk, Nastja ceh (football player) and Marko Kmetec (football player). They confirmed that Prasnikar received the money.
Playing career
Prašnikar started his professional football career in at his home town club NK Šmartno 1928 where in the 1975-76 season he was the top scorer of the Slovenian League. After that season he moved to Olimpija Ljubljana of Yugoslav First League, spending only one year there before returning to Šmartno, where he played for the next 6 seasons. During this period he was the league's top scorer on three occasions and helped NK Šmartno become Slovenian champions in 1981. In 1983 he transferred to SVG Bleiburg of Austria where he played for one season before retiring.
Coaching career
After retirement, Prašnikar focused on coaching, starting his managerial career at NK Šmartno, before moving on to coach various other clubs - Elkroj, Ingrad Celje, NK Mura, Olimpija Ljubljana (leading them to 2 Slovenian league titles) and Rudar Velenje. His most successful spell however, came while in charge of NK Maribor from 1996 to 2000. Under his guidance, the club won the Slovenian league 4 times and qualified for the group phase of the UEFA Champions League (the only Slovenian club to ever achieve this), after defeating KRC Genk and Olympique Lyon in the qualifying rounds.
Bojan Prašnikar was the manager of the Slovenian national football team during three time spans. After Slovenia's independence in 1991 he was named the first head coach of the national team. He remained in the position until December 1993, when Zdenko Verdenik took charge of the Slovenian affairs until the end of the unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup 1998. Prašnikar was re-installed head coach in December 1997, but his second spell at the helm of Slovenia lasted for only four month as in April 1998 he resigned due to his commitments with Maribor on club-level. He was replaced by Srečko Katanec.
His third spell in charge of the Slovenian national team started in July 2002, when the Football Association of Slovenia appointed him the successor of Katanec after the disappointing first round finish of the national team at the FIFA World Cup 2002 and Katanec's swift resignation. This job lasted until May 2004. Not qualified for the 2004 European Football Championship tournament, the Slovenian FA replaced Prašnikar with Branko Oblak, who was the head coach of the Slovenian U21 at that time.
On 28 September 2007 he was appointed by German Bundesliga outfit Energie Cottbus, who had parted company with head coach Petrik Sander five days earlier. Prašnikar, who was in charge of Primorje Ajdovščina in the Slovenian league before that, signed a deal until June 2010 with the former German Cup finalist. On 30 May 2009 Prašnikar announced his leaving at the end of the season from FC Energie Cottbus, his last game was the Fußball-Bundesliga 2008–09 relegation playoff game on 31 May 2009 against 1. FC Nuremberg which he lost 5-0 on aggregate. On 6 April 2010 Prašnikar signed a contract until the end of the season with the Slovenian team NK Rudar Velenje.
Personal life
He has a son, Luka Prašnikar, who is a professional footballer and currently plays for the 2.SNL team NK Dob.