Three years ago, Ivica Osim left us; he loved his Sarajevo, Željo, and Grbavica

(Patria) - Three years ago today, on May 1, 2022, sad news arrived from Graz: Ivica Osim, a true legend of FK Željezničar and BiH football, left us.

Ivica Osim was born in Sarajevo in 1941. He grew up in Grbavica, where he started playing football, and he played for the first team of Željezničar in the 1959/60 season. He played for the 'Blues' for 11 years, played 250 official matches, and scored 75 goals.

He moved to France in 1970, where he played for Strasbourg, Sedan, and Valenciennes.

He played 16 matches for the Yugoslav national team and scored eight goals. He was one of the key players in winning second place at the 1968 European Championship. Later, he was also successful as the coach of Yugoslavia.

As a coach, he became famous at the helm of Željezničar, and he also managed Partizan, Panathinaikos, Sturm, JEF United, and finally, the national team of Japan at the end of his career. Leading Austrian club Sturm, he achieved the club's greatest successes and was named its best coach in history.

In Japan, he left an indelible mark in a short time and gained legendary status. The Japanese never forgot him, and in 2016, at a ceremony by the Japanese government as part of the imperial investiture, he received the Order of the Rising Sun, an award given for contributions to the development of football in Japan and the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After Osim's death, a street next to the Grbavica stadium (Zvornička) was named Ivica Osim Boulevard.

In 2011, FIFA appointed him head of the Normalization Committee of the Football Association of BiH, and together with his team, he saved BiH football, which had been suspended by FIFA and UEFA.

One of Osim's actions remained forever etched in history. Osim was the coach of Yugoslavia from 1986 to 1992, and he resigned on May 23, 1992, just three weeks before the start of the European Championship in Sweden, which Yugoslavia was supposed to play in, but was later banned from participating.

Osim called a press conference in Belgrade, where he emotionally, with tears, said goodbye to the national team he could no longer lead due to the attack on Sarajevo, i.e., Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Resignation is, like this, the most direct thing, for a man to say: I'm leaving, and that's it. I tell you again, and I've already repeated it, that I don't believe I can go, nor will I go, neither to Florence nor to Sweden. Everything I can do, humanly speaking, and if anyone asks me, it's a personal gesture, and you can interpret it as you wish… It's my personal decision, and I won't say why or explain, you know very well. But if nothing else, the only thing I can do for that city, at least so that you too remember that I was born in Sarajevo, and you know what's happening," Osim said at the time.

Football Club Željezničar dedicated a post to their 'Švabo' again today.