Bora Milutinović

Bora Milutinović

Milutinović in 2006
Personal information
Full name	Velibor Milutinović
Date of birth	(1944-09-07) 7 September 1944
Place of birth	Bajina Bašta, Yugoslavia
Height
Position(s)	Central midfielder
Youth career
1956–1958	Partizan Belgrade
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1958–1960	OFK Beograd	15	(2)
1960–1966	Partizan	40	(3)
1965–1966	→ Beograd (loan)	12	(3)
1966–1967	Winterthur	20	(1)
1967–1969	Monaco	42	(3)
1969–1971	Nice	37	(0)
1971–1972	Rouen	11	(0)
1972–1976	UNAM	93	(12)
Total		270	(24)
Managerial career
1977–1983	UNAM
1983–1986	Mexico
1987	San Lorenzo
1987	Udinese
1988	Veracruz
1988–1989	Tecos UAG
1990	Costa Rica
1991–1995	United States
1995–1997	Mexico
1997–1998	Nigeria
1998–1999	MetroStars
2000–2002	China
2003–2004	Honduras
2004–2005	Al Sadd
2006–2007	Jamaica
2009	Iraq
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Velibor “Bora” Milutinović (Serbian Cyrillic: Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian football coach and former player.

He and Carlos Alberto Parreira are the only two people to have coached five different teams at the World Cup: Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998), and China (2002). He is also the first coach to take four different teams beyond the first round – Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), and Nigeria (1998) – earning the nickname of Miracle Worker, first given to him by Alan Rothenberg, then president of the United States Soccer Federation. In total Milutinović has coached eight different national football teams.

Coaching - World Cup national teams

Mexico (1983–86)

Milutinović led Mexico to the quarter-finals at the 1986 World Cup, its highest finish. Mexico fell in the quarter-finals to West Germany on penalty kicks.

Costa Rica (1990)

Milutinović took over Costa Rica just before the 1990 World Cup and got Costa Rica into the second round. In 1990, Milutinović was hired as coach of Costa Rica just 90 days before the World Cup. He cut the captain and other starters. Costa Rica managed to beat Scotland and Sweden and lost to Brazil, 1–0, before getting swamped by Czechoslovakia, 4–1, in the second round.

United States (1991–95)

Hank Steinbrecher, general secretary of the U.S. Soccer Federation, conducted the job interviews for the U.S. national team head coach position. American coaches had not proved their worth on the international stage, as the United States had lost all three games in the 1990 World Cup finals under Bob Gansler. When the USSF's search began in 1991, the emphasis was not so much on experience, but on finding a coach who could squeeze the last drop of potential out of a lightly regarded team, and Milutinović's name came up again and again. He had coached first Mexico, then Costa Rica to surprising World Cup success.

Milutinović left no doubts about who ran the team, cutting two U.S. players, Peter Vermes and Desmond Armstrong, board members of the national federation, from his World Cup team. Milutinović further cut Bruce Murray, the all-time leading U.S. goal scorer. When Alexi Lalas first showed up at training camp, Milutinović told him to get a haircut or get off the team.

Milutinović coached the United States national team at the 1994 World Cup, held in the U.S. In the 1994 WC, the U.S. team notched its first win in the World Cup since 1950, and progressed to the knockout round of the tournament for the first time since the 1930s.

The USSF fired Bora Milutinović on April 14, 1995, saying it wanted someone who could be both coach and administrator. Milutinović reportedly wanted no part of the administrative duties.

Nigeria (1997–98)

Milutinović coached the Nigerian team at the 1998 World Cup in France. Nigeria won its group, notching a notable 3–2 upset win over Spain, and reached the knockout rounds. This was the fourth team that Milutinović had taken to the knockout rounds of the World Cup, a coaching record.

China (2000–02)

Under Milutinović, China qualified to the World Cup finals for the first time ever. Milutinović continues to be a supporter of the Chinese national team, and keeps a blog on the Chinese website Sina.com.

Coaching – other national teams

Honduras (2003–04)

In the summer of 2003, Milutinović was in serious negotiations to finally take over the national team at his native Serbia. Despite heavy, month-long persuasion from Serbian football officials, Milutinović turned down the offer and soon signed on to the Honduras national team. He led the team to the first round of CONCACAF qualifiers before resigning on 30 June 2004. He cited "the prevailing bad atmosphere, created by comments made by the country's managers, officials and press" as the reason for his leaving during World Cup qualifying.

Jamaica (2006–07)

On 16 November 2006, Milutinović was announced as head coach of Jamaica. On 9 November 2007, following a string of six consecutive friendly defeats, he was fired by the Jamaican FA.

Iraq (2009)

Milutinović led the Iraq national football team in group play in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup for two draws and one loss, failing to reach the knockout stage.

Coach	Period	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses
Bora Milutinović	8 April 2009 – June 2009	4	0	3	1

• Qatar vs. Iraq not considered as a FIFA International match since Iraq made 13 Substitutions, Iraq lost the match 0–1.

Coaching – club teams

Milutinović's coaching career at club level has seen more mixed success. His longest coaching spell for a single club was his tenure with UNAM Pumas of Mexico from 1977–83. Several of his Pumas players ended up playing for Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.

Since then, he has coached briefly for several club teams. He coached Udinese Calcio of Italian Serie B for nine matches in 1987. He coached the MetroStars of Major League Soccer to the worst record in league history in 1999. He also had a brief stint in Qatar league with Al-Sadd in 2004–05.

Personal life

The Milutinović brothers: Milorad, Miloš and Bora

Bora Milutinović comes from a legendary football family; he and his two brothers Miloš and Milorad played together for Partizan Belgrade.

His father was killed in World War II, his mother by tuberculosis soon after the war. He said he doesn't remember either of his parents. He was raised by an aunt, and raised playing football.

Milutinović is married to a Mexican and currently resides in Qatar. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French as well as his native Serbian.

Honours

Player

Pumas UNAM

• Copa MX: 1974-75
• Campeón de Campeones: 1975

Manager

Pumas UNAM

• Liga MX: 1980-81
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1980 CONCACAF Champions' Cup
• Copa Interamericana: 1981

Mexico

• Gold Cup: 1996

United States

• Gold Cup: 1991

External links

• Bora Milutinović's match-by-match record with various countries
• Bora Milutinović Liga MX stats at Medio Tiempo.com (Spanish)

Template:United States Squad 1993 Copa América