Vuk TesijaZagrebBIRNFebruary 8, 202311:14Sporting legend who took Croatia to third place in the 1998 World Cup dies days before his 88th birthday, leaving behind warm memories of a long and glorious coaching career.
Miroslav Ciro Blazevic. EPA PHOTO DPA/ACHIM SCHEIDEMANN
Miroslav Ciro Blazevic, an iconic figure of Croatian football and well known throughout the region, died in Zagreb on Wednesday, two days before his 88th birthday.
“The coach of all coaches“, as they often called him, in his long career led 19 clubs in Switzerland, Croatia, Kosovo, Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China and Iran, and coached five national teams – Switzerland, Croatia, Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina and China’s U-23.
“May the beloved Ciro rest in the Croatian country, and we express our deepest condolences to those closest to us on behalf of the entire football family who today lost the ‘coach of all coaches,’” the Croatian Football Federation wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Two great results marked Blazevic’s career – Zagreb Dinamo winning the championship of the former Yugoslavia in 1982 and the bronze medal of the Croatian national team at the 1998 World Championship in France, the first World Cup tournament Croatia participated in, after declaring its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
“Always ’82. There was never a dilemma. Dinamo ’82 is in the first place, then nothing for a long time, then my ‘Vatreni’ [the nickname of the Croatian national team],” Blazevic recalled in December 2021 at the premiere of the documentary film Ciro by Sabahudin Topalbećirević.
His coaching skills and personal charisma won over players, fans and people wherever he worked.
Blazevic was born 1935 in Travnik, Bosnia. He started his football career in 1954 playing in the Travnik club Bratstvo. He then moved to Dinamo Zagreb and in 1955 to Lokomotiva Zagreb, and then returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Sarajevo, where he played until 1958.
He returned then to Croatia, this time to Rijeka, where he played until 1961. He then played for the Swiss football club Sion for a year. He got his first coaching position in the lower league FC Vevey.
He achieved his greatest success when he led the Croatian national team to third place at the 1998 World Championship. In total, he led his “Vatreni” a record 72 times.
“When I summarize my whole life, I have the need to lock myself in my room and cry so much that I never stop. Nothing in my life was easy! I had two cancers, and now, here, the third one has appeared,” wrote Ciro in one of his last posts.
“My childhood was so poor, and later in my youth, when I was already married, my wife and I did not know whether we would have our next meal or not. My life was an ordinary ordeal and I needed to survive all that. Even this coaching job, which may look different from the outside, is nothing but very little satisfaction and a lot of disappointment,” he added.
Ciro was passionate about football. “If you don’t give everything to football, you give it nothing,” he used to say. But he will be remembered not only for his coaching skills but for his charisma and ability to communicate, motivate and conquer people with a unique charm.
He even tried his hand at politics and ran for president in 2005 – but won only 0.80 per cent of the vote.
He was the only person in history to receive the “Franjo Bucar” State Sports Award three times. The Assembly of the Croatian Football Association awarded him the title of “honorary coach“.
Blazevic was married to his wife, Zdenko, for more than 60 years, with whom he had three children, son Miroslav Junior and daughters Barbara and Catherine.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
