Nenad Starovlah

Playing career

Nenad Starovlah was the total player. He played 333 games for Željezničar as a defender where nevertheless he scored 18 goals. He stayed in Željezničar from 1972–1982, where he won the Yugoslav Championship once. In July 1992, Nenad was chosen as the best young player at the tournament of the Republic Championship.

He also played for the Yugoslav national team where in the 1978 Summer Olympics, the Yugoslav team won the gold medal in Athens and a year later, at the 1979 Mediterranean Games, the Yugoslav team won the gold medal in Split. He retired when he was 27 years old, due to a knee injury.

Željezničar

After ending his football career in 1982 he took over U-10 side of Željezničar and for eight years he trained with them where they achieved six titles of the Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to the fact that sixteen of these players from that generation signed a professional contract with the first team, he took over as assistant coach of Željezničar in 1992 under Milan Ribar. The war in Yugoslavia took place in 1992 and as a result the team split. Many of these players continued their career abroad like Mario Stanić (Benfica, Parma, Chelsea, National Team of Croatia), Elvir Baljić (Fenerbahçe, Real Madrid, Galatasaray, Bosnian national team), Marijo Dodik (Mechelen, Slaven Belupo, Bosnian national team), Boris Vasković (Vojvodina, Sartid, OFK Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia national team), Veldin Karić (Vojvodina, Torino, Lugano, Dinamo, Croatian national team), and others.

Yugoslav U-16 and Bosnian U-17 national teams

He took over Yugoslav U-16 national team as an assistant coach of Mirko Jozić in 1990. The team reached the finals of the European Championship in Germany in 1990 losing the final to Czechoslovakia by 3-2.

During the same period whilst he was the assistant coach at SFR Yugoslavia U-16, he was the manager of the Bosnia and Herzegovina U-17 national team. In 1988 and 1990 the team achieved the championship of Republic of Yugoslavia twice and in 1989 where the team won the second place.

Hajduk Kula

In 1992, after years of experience in the previous teams managed, Starovlah moved to Serbia and became manager of Hajduk. While he was Hajduk's manager, Hajduk made the greatest achievement in the history of the club until that period of time.

Radoman Vasović, the club president back then, declared:

"Even if prior to deciding to assign Nenad Starovlah as our coach, we had information about who and what personality he had, it is not till now that we can say that we are absolutely certain that we received what we wanted: a young and professional manager, a person who is fully dedicated to football, who has energy and ambition to achieve the goal that has been set, and who knows how to teach the players how to play football but also to psychologically motivate them to always give their maximum.”

Borac Čačak

Starovlah then moved to Borac Čačak, where the committee of the club considered that he was the ideal coach to help their team achieve their major goal which was to get promotion to the First League of FR Yugoslavia. In 1994, with Starovlah the team achieved their goal after a thirty-two year wait.

Ethnikos

In 1994, Starovlah signed a 1-year contract with Ethnikos Piraeus, who was in the first league of Greece.

Apollon

From 1995-1999, Starovlah was working in Apollon in Cyprus. During these four years he took different positions in the team: academy technical director and manager. In 1998 Starovlah became the manager of the first team of Apollon. He was brought in by club president Dimis Kirzis. While he was Apollon’s manager, Apollon reached the UEFA Cup top sixteen for the first time in the club’s history.

Enosis Neon Paralimni

In 1999, Starovlah signed a contract with Cyprus's club Enosis Neon Paralimni.

Sutjeska

Continuing his career, in 2000 Starovlah returned to FR Yugoslavia and became the manager of FK Sutjeska Nikšić. Prior to signing the contract, Sutjeska was at the bottom of the league table.

Second spell at Apollon

After Sutjeska, Starovlah made his return to Apollon. During his position as the technical director of the academy, he coached a number of players who are known to be one of the most successful both in the Cypriot league and abroad. On 1 October 2004, the Cypriot newspapers named him “Ο πιο πιστός στρατιώτης,” which in English means “The most dedicated soldier.”

Željezničar

In 2006, Starovlah became the manager of the club where he played, FK Željezničar Sarajevo, now competing in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Omonoia

After his brief return to Sarajevo, Starovlah returned to Cyprus, this time to its capital Nicosia, where he signed a contract with Omonoia. He took the position of the technical director of the academy and he was also responsible for the scouting of the first team of Omonoia. Whilst working he managed to form players who play in the first team of Omonoia. Some of these players are: Charis Kyriacou, Panayiotis Frangeskou, Marios Demetriou and Stavros Christoudias.

Reception

Some players mention that Nenad Starovlah was their mentor and guided them to their current careers. Zoran Simunović described Starovlah as “a high quality coach with many diplomas, who managed to make a lot of success in his career.” Panayiotis Frangeskou named Starovlah to be his “football father,” due to his years of support. Zoran Šaraba stated that “Starovlah is a great expert who is in love with football. He know how to work, he is ambitious, a real professional whom everyone loves: players, management and fans." Whilst Starovlah was working in FK Hajduk Kula, the manager of Red Star Belgrade, Dragan Džajić stated, “I congratulate the team. They have a nice team, they knew how to play against our players, they won and it brought them one point. Starovlah did a great job.” Of course, Starovlah has also been criticized by certain coaches and players.