Full name Mehmed Bazdarevic Role Football manager Date joined 1996 Name Mehmed Bazdarevic Position Midfielder | Years Team Spouse Marina Bazdarevic Playing position Height 1.78 m | |
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Date of birth (1960-09-28) 28 September 1960 (age 55) Place of birth Visegrad, SFR Yugoslavia Current team Bosnia and Herzegovina (manager) Teams coached Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team (Manager, since 2014) Similar People Safet Susic, Edin Dzeko, Haris Medunjanin, Edin Visca, Ognjen Vranjes | ||
Euro 2016 qualifying play-offs - Post Draw Interview - Mehmed Baždarević (18/10/15)
Mehmed Baždarević ([ˈmechmed ˈbaʒdarevich]; born 28 September 1960) is a Bosnian football manager and former player. Baždarević is the current manager of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team.
Contents
- Euro 2016 qualifying play offs Post Draw Interview Mehmed Badarevi 181015
- eljezniar Sarajevo
- Sochaux
- International career
- Managerial career
- Istres
- toile
- Grenoble
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- International goals
- Manager
- International
- Individual
- Mehmed Badarevi in popular culture
- Personal life
- References
Baždarević played for Bosnian side Željezničar Sarajevo and French outfit Sochaux-Montbéliard, among others. Known as Meša in the former Yugoslavia and colloquially known as Mécha in France, he is considered to be one of the best football players from Bosnia and Herzegovina ever.
Internationally he earned caps with Yugoslavia and took part playing at UEFA Euro 1984. He also played for Bosnia and Herzegovina after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992. He was the first captain of the Bosnian national side. He retired as a player in 1998 and moved into management.
Željezničar Sarajevo
Born in Višegrad, SFR Yugoslavia his professional playing career started in Željezničar Sarajevo in 1979. He was part of a team that managed to reach the UEFA Cup semifinals in 1985 under the guidance of Ivica Osim.
In 1980/1981 season, Željezničar reached Yugoslav cup final (Marshal Tito Cup final), with 20-year-old Mehmed Baždarević scoring two goals in a 2–3 loss to another Bosnian side Velež Mostar. The venue of the final was Stadion Crvene Zvezde in Belgrade played in front of 40,000 football fans.
He played more than 300 games for the club.
Sochaux
In 1987, he moved to French side Sochaux-Montbéliard. He stayed at the club until 1996. He collected more than 350 appearances for FC Sochaux in various competitions.
After that, he played for Nîmes Olympique (1996–97 season) and Swiss side Étoile Carouge (1997–98 season) before he announced his retirement in summer of 1998.
As player, Baždarević was targeted by many clubs including Barcelona, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund.
International career
He also played for the national teams of two countries. He played for the Yugoslavia junior, Olympic and U-21 teams. He captained the U-20 national team that took part in the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1979. His debut for Yugoslav national team came in 1983. He collected 54 caps and scored 4 goals for the national team. He represented Yugoslavia national team at UEFA Euro 1984 playing in all the teams games at the tournament.
Baždarević began to play for the Bosnian national team in 1992 after Bosnia-Herzegovina gained independence. However, the team was not recognised by FIFA until 1995 in part due to the Yugoslav wars.
Managerial career
From July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2003 Baždarević worked as Sochaux assistant coach to Jean Fernandez and Guy Lacombe before taking over as manager of reserve sides at the club.
Istres
His first job as a head coach was at Istres. He guided the club to its biggest success - entering the French Ligue 1 in 2004, which secured him a best Ligue 2 manager of the year award.
Étoile
On 16 July 2005, Baždarević took over Tunisian side Étoile Sportive du Sahel. He reached the 2005 African Champions League final with the club. Baždarević was fired by Etoile on 12 April 2006, after a 1–0 home defeat to USM Monastir in their final league cost them the Tunisian League.
Baždarević was also employed as a head coach of Qatari Al-Wakra in 2006.
Grenoble
Since December 2007, he has been managing French side Grenoble Foot 38 where he arrived on recommendation of his mentor Ivica Osim who knew Grenoble's Japanese owners from working with them in J-League with JEF United. He rejected offers from top league clubs Le Mans and Nice to take over Grenoble. At the end of 2007–08, led by Bazdarevic, Grenoble gained promotion to the French top league, for the first time in their history. Under Baždarević, Grenoble reached French Cup semi-finals during 2008–09 season.
In September 2010, he left Grenoble due to financial reasons.
Sochaux
On 10 June 2011, Baždarević was named as manager of the Sochaux for which he played professional football. He was sacked on 6 March 2012, due to poor results (after 8 months in charge).
Since then he has had interest to manage clubs from Serbia and Belgium.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
On 13 December 2014, Baždarević was named coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team beating Milovan Rajevac for the position. Among other candidates were Vahid Halilhodžić, Igor Štimac, and Felix Magath. He replaced Safet Sušić, who was sacked by N/FSBiH due to a run of poor results in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying having only taken 2 points in four matches. Bosnia and Herzegovina improved considerably under Bazdarevic and reached the playoffs stage for Euro 2016 where they were unfortunately eliminated by Republic of Ireland with a 3-1 aggregate score. In the aftermath, Miroslav Blažević blamed Mehmed Baždarević for Bosnia's elimination against Ireland.
On 9 November 2015, Bosnian FA extended the contract with Baždarević till after 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier campaign.
International goals
Scores and results table. Yugoslavia's goal tally first:Manager
As of match played 13 November 2016. Some club statistics accurate as at 18 April 2013.International
Individual
Mehmed Baždarević in popular culture
Personal life
His wife Marina Baždarević was born in Belgrade, Serbia. He met his wife in 1979 on an airplane from Japan going back to Belgrade. Nine months later, they met again on another flight from Tunisia to Belgrade and after the second meeting they started dating His daughter, Téa Baždarević, is a journalist in France.