Bosnia and Herzegovina against Ukraine is one of the main matches of the semi-finals of the Euro 2024 play-offs. The winner will continue to fight for a ticket to the European Championship and the loser will be eliminated. The hosts are led by famous former Serbian striker Savo Milosevic. At the end of his career, he spent a “golden” season at Rubin and, after Russia’s suspension from international competitions, he publicly supported our country. We tell you how the path as a coach for a 50-year-old specialist turns out.
Milosevic was a very tough player. One fact is enough: at Euro 2000, the forward of the then Yugoslav national team became the top scorer of the tournament, sharing first place with Patrick Kluivert; both scored five goals. The most surprising thing is that he scored in all four of Yugoslav’s matches at the European Championship: a double with Slovenia, a goal against Norway, a goal against Spain and the Netherlands.
Throughout his career, Milosevic played in England for Aston Villa, in Spain for Zaragoza, Espanyol, Celta and Osasuna, and in Italy for Parma. In the autumn of 2007, the then 34-year-old striker was left without a club and it seemed that he would retire from football. But after a six-month break, Savo unexpectedly found himself in Russia, signing a contract with Rubin. In Kazan, the Serb beautifully performed his swan song; His experience was useful to Kurban Berdyev. Milosevic played 16 games in the RPL, scoring three goals and giving two assists. It was his goal in November 2008 against Saturn that turned into gold and gave Rubin the first championship in the history of the Kazan club.
After such a brilliant finish, Milosevic was able to finish calmly. For Savo himself, the championship with Rubin was the only one of his career abroad. He won the Yugoslav championship two more times when he was a young player at Partizan in the early 1990s.
Savo Milosevic on Rubin (right)
Photo: RIA Novosti
After leaving the field, Milosevic did not appear to have any plans to become a coach. At least he started training only 10 years later! Until the summer of 2011, practically nothing was known about the former Serbian football star. Savo wanted to be president of Partizan, but it didn’t work out. And in June 2011, shocking news appeared: Milosevic’s grandfather shot and killed his son Stevan, Savo’s father.
In September of the same year, Milosevic received the position of advisor to the coach of the Montenegro national team, Branko Brnovich. He held this position until the summer of 2012 and then became sports director of the Serbian national team. From November 2014 to March 2019 he served as vice president of the Serbian Football Federation.
In general, nothing interesting happened for fans in Milosevic’s career after the match. But in March 2019, Savo terminated his contract with the federation to return to his native Partizan. Not the president, the head coach! Evidently, it was not too difficult for a person with such status and connections in Serbian football to get this position. He would want to train and the necessary document.
Symbolic team of Serbian legionnaires in the RPL
Serbian legionnaire team in the RPL. Russia helped two of them become superstars.
Milosevic took charge of a team that was going through a difficult time and was fighting for third place in the Serbian championship. The first pancake, as expected, went wrong: Partizan lost on the road to the central team Napredak (0:1). Interestingly, in coach Savo’s debut match, Zoran Tosic played on the right flank of midfield and Sasa Zdelar sat on the bench. Three days later came the first victory against “Cukarichki” (3-2). He had a lot of will, because with the score 1:2 Milosevic’s team was eliminated with a double from Tosic.
A month later, Savo lost his first derby as a coach: Partizan lost to Red Star 1:2. After this, the promotion began: Milosevic’s team achieved a 12-game unbeaten streak. Furthermore, during this series the first trophy was won. In the Serbian Cup final, Partizan took revenge on Red Star by winning 1:0.
Partizan finished third and qualified for the Europa League. Milosevic’s team started the new season successfully: it passed three qualifying rounds of the Europa League and reached the group stage. There, Partizan had a good performance in a quartet with Manchester United, Dutch AZ Alkmaar and Kazakh Astana: two wins, two draws and two losses. There was only one point left to advance from the group to the playoffs.
In the Serbian Cup, Milosevic’s team reached the final again, eliminating Red Star Red Star in the semi-finals (1-0), but in the fight for the trophy they lost on penalties to Vojvodina. In the Partizan championship, where current Real Sociedad striker Umar Sadiq lit up the attack under Savo’s leadership, he finished second. However, after six rounds of the 2020/2021 season, Milosevic resigned. Although the start was not disastrous: four wins and two losses.
Milosevic then rested for nine months, until the summer of 2021. In July he took charge of Slovenian side Olimpia, but only stayed four months at the Ljubljana club. Under Savo, the team was eliminated from the Conference League standings, losing to the Portuguese Santa Clara and, like the previous season, came third in the championship. But the owner of Olimpia changed, so Milosevic left his position.
Then Savo had a hiatus of almost two years. And only in September 2023 he returned to training and took charge of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team during the qualification cycle for Euro 2024. The Serbian had time to prepare the team for the playoffs in the remaining matches of the main qualification . Under Milosevic, the Bosnians started with a victory over Liechtenstein (2-0) and then suffered three defeats in a row: against Portugal (0-5), Luxembourg (1-4) and Slovakia (1-2).
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Speaking about the playing style of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team under his leadership, Milosevic admitted that he is not a fan of long games with the ball. Savo’s idea is a quick transition from the midfield to the opponent’s area. That is why he will play for Ukraine, and in the other goal the main hope, of course, is the eternal Edin Dzeko: the 38-year-old scorer scored more than 20 goals this season for Fenerbahce.
Even before leading the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, Milosevic attracted attention with several comments in support of Russian athletes suspended from international competitions. In particular, Savo said in an interview with Sport24:
“I feel sorry for all the athletes and fans of Russia. In this country people live off sports all their lives! And at some point they were simply crossed out, as if they had never existed. It’s sad. The Serbian people are experiencing this pain together with the Russians. I hope that everyone involved in this madness begins to understand the feeling of injustice that Russian athletes experience. So far only we Serbs understand it, which is a shame. “I express all my support for the Russian football team and other Russian athletes and fans.”
It is interesting that Milosevic played for Rubin together with the current coach of the Ukrainian national team, Sergei Rebrov. In the “golden” match against Saturn both were on the field. Now they are rivals.
