One of the greatest legends of Bosnian football, Ivica Osim, celebrates his birthday

On this day, May 6, 1941, one of the greatest legends of Bosnian football, Ivica Osim, was born. The popular "Švabo" was born in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Hrasno, and grew up in a working-class family. His father was a locksmith on the railway and occasionally played the accordion, while his mother was a housewife and activist in the Red Cross, for which she received the April 6 Award of the City of Sarajevo. He completed primary school in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Hrasno, after which he enrolled in grammar school. In high school, he was one of the best mathematicians, for which he was exempted from the final exam, and after graduation, he enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics in Sarajevo.

Already on his first exam in mathematics studies, he received a grade of nine, and many claim that if he had chosen to continue his studies instead of football, he would probably have achieved some university degree.

Football (playing) career

Osim began his football career in 1954, in the youth setup of FK Željezničar from Sarajevo. He made his debut for the first team in 1959, in a match against NK Proleter from Osijek. Due to his exceptional technique, brilliant ball control, effective dribbling, and good shot, he earned the nickname Štraus sa Grbavice and quickly became a fan favorite. Osim spent nine years at Željezničar, after which he moved to the Dutch FC "Zwolle". However, due to a knee injury, he stayed there only three months and returned to Željezničar. In 1970, he went to French club RC Strasbourg, where he stayed for the next two seasons, scoring 16 goals in 58 matches. In 1972, he moved to CS Sedan, where he stayed for the next three seasons, then went to FC Valenciennes, after which he returned to RC Strasbourg, where he ended his playing career.

As for his international career, Osim was a member of the Yugoslav U21 national team from 1962 to 1963, for which he played three matches. For the senior national team, he scored eight goals in 16 matches. Osim also participated in the Olympic Games in 1964 in Japan, where he scored 4 goals in five matches. He is one of the few footballers who can boast of having played in a European Championship final. That was in 1968, when Yugoslavia, in a replayed match, lost to the Italian national team, 2-0. Osim played his last match for the national team on April 30, 1969, against the Spanish national team in Barcelona, in the qualifiers for the World Cup, which was held in Mexico in 1970.

Coaching career 

After his playing career ended, Osim became the coach of FK "Željezničar" in 1978. He remained in that position for eight years, during which he twice became vice-champion of Yugoslavia, appeared in the final of the "Marshal Tito Cup", and played in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1986, against the Hungarian club FK Videoton. This is a match that is still talked about today, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also further afield. The very end of that match was one of the most difficult sporting moments in the history of FK Željezničar and in the coaching career of Ivica Osim.

At the Summer Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, he was an assistant to Ivan Toplak, then the coach of the Yugoslav Olympic football team, which won a bronze medal. In 1986, the popular "Švabo" became the coach of the Yugoslav national team (on whose bench he had been an assistant to Ivan Toplak two years earlier, when Yugoslavia won bronze at the Olympics in Los Angeles), making his debut on October 29, 1986, in Split, against the Turkish national team, with a 4-0 victory. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Osim led the Yugoslav national team to the quarter-finals, where they were defeated on penalties by the Argentine national team. In 1992, Yugoslavia, also under Osim's leadership, qualified for the European Championship, but due to the outbreak of conflict in Yugoslavia, the team was disqualified from the tournament.

From 1991 to 1992, alongside the Yugoslav national team, he coached Belgrade's FK Partizan, with whom he won the "Yugoslav Cup" in 1992. In 1992, he took over Greek club Panathinaikos FC, where he stayed until 1994, winning the "Greek Cup" twice, the "Greek Super Cup" once, and was also vice-champion of the Greek league, one point behind the first-placed AEK. In July 1994, he took over Austrian club SK Sturm from Graz. Over the next eight years (1994-2002), with SK Sturm, he won the Austrian league twice, the "Austrian Cup" once, the "Austrian Super Cup" twice, and played in the Champions League from 1998 to 2000. In January 2009, he was named "coach of the century" at a ceremony marking the club's centenary. From 2003 to 2006, he was also the coach of Japanese club JEF United, with whom he won the "Japanese Cup" in 2005. It was the first trophy in the club's history. He brought his son Amar Osim on as his assistant, who later took over the club after Ivica Osim was promoted to coach of the Japanese national team on July 21, 2006.

On November 16, 2007, while he was the coach of the Japanese national team, Osim suffered a stroke in his apartment in Tokyo, while watching an English Premier League match. After the stroke, he was in a coma until December 3, 2007, and upon waking from the coma, the first thing he asked his wife Asima was "How did the match go?" (the one that was taking place at the time of the accident). 

During his stay in Japan, he gained great popularity. In 2005, a book titled "Osim's Words" was published in Japan, containing quotes from Ivica Osim. The book sold more than 400,000 copies and was a bestseller in Japan.

For a short period, he served as the president of the Normalization Committee of the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(historija.ba)