SARAJEVO: Former Bosnian footballer and coach Ivica Osim(pix), who led the last Yugoslavia team before the country violently broke apart in the 1990s, has died Sunday aged 80, local media reported.
The Sarajevo-born Osim died in Graz, Austria, the BHRT television channel reported.
“Osim will be remembered as the legendary ‘Strauss from Grbavica’, a top football player and coach, but also as a great man and patriot, with unique charisma and moral qualities,“ the chairman of Bosnia’s joint presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, said.
Osim was dubbed 'Strauss from Grbavica' in reference to the Bosnian neighbourhood where he grew up.
A midfielder, he started his professional career in 1959 with Zeljeznicar Sarajevo where he played for 11 years across two spells.
In 1970 he left for France where he played for Strasbourg, Sedan and Valenciennes.
Osim started his coaching career in 1978 with Zeljeznicar.
He was in charge of a superb Yugoslavia team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, reaching the quarter-finals before losing in a penalty shootout to Diego Maradona's Argentina.
When Serbian forces began bombing Sarajevo at the start of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, Osim, barely holding back the tears, told Serb journalists that he hoped they would remember “that I come from Sarajevo”.
He later coached Partizan Belgrade, Panathinaikos, Sturm Graz, JEF United and Japan.-AFP
