Safet Sušić

Safet Sušić

Personal information
Full name	Safet Sušić
Date of birth	(1955-04-13) 13 April 1955
Place of birth	Zavidovići, FPR Yugoslavia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Attacking midfielder Second striker
Youth career
1971–1972	Krivaja
1972–1973	FK Sarajevo
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1973–1982	FK Sarajevo	221	(86)
1982–1991	Paris Saint-Germain	287	(67)
1991–1992	Red Star Saint-Ouen	17	(3)
Total		525	(155)
National team
1977–1990	Yugoslavia	54	(21)
1993	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	(0)
Teams managed
1994–1995	Cannes
1996–1998	İstanbulspor
2001	Al-Hilal Riyadh
2004–2005	Konyaspor
2005–2006	Ankaragücü
2006	Çaykur Rizespor
2008	Çaykur Rizespor
2008–2009	Ankaraspor
2009–2014	Bosnia and Herzegovina
2015–2016	Évian
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Safet Sušić (born 13 April 1955) is a Bosnian football manager and former player. Sušić was a gifted midfielder known for his dribbling skills and technical ability, and is strongly reputed to have been one of the finest European players of his generation. Sušić played for Yugoslavia in two FIFA World Cups, 1982 and 1990, and at UEFA Euro 1984. As manager he took the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Sušić played as an attacking midfielder, often in a role of trequartista or fantasista (i.e. a creative playmaker), or rarely as secondary striker for FK Sarajevo, Paris Saint-Germain and Red Star Saint-Ouen and internationally for Yugoslavia and, later, Bosnia and Herzegovina - later during his career he was utilized more in a role of deep-lying playmaker, both for club and national team. In 2010, France Football voted Sušić as Paris Saint-Germain's best player of all time and the best foreign player of Ligue 1 of all time.^[1][2][3] As part of the UEFA Jubilee Awards in 2004, the Bosnian football association chose Sušić as the nation's greatest ever player.^[4]

Following his retirement from playing, Sušić started working as a manager. He worked for a number of club sides: Cannes, İstanbulspor, Al-Hilal, Konyaspor, Ankaragücü, Çaykur Rizespor, Ankaraspor, Évian and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.

Club career

Early career

Sušić began his career with the football club Krivaja in his hometown Zavidovići. In 1973, he was transferred to FK Sarajevo. During the 1979–80 season, he was top scorer in the Yugoslav First League with 17 goals. In 1979, he was honoured as the Yugoslav Footballer of the Year, also being selected as the best athlete hailing from the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Paris Saint-Germain

In 1982, Sušić signed with Paris Saint-Germain, where he became a star on the European stage. During his first season with the club, Sušić helped PSG to win the 1982–83 Coupe de France, scoring three goals over two legs in the semi-final against FC Tours, and once in 3-2 victory over FC Nantes in the final. During the 1985–86 season, Sušić scored ten goals as the Parisiens won their first ever national league title.^[4]

Overall, Sušić scored 96 goals and make a record 61 assists for PSG between 1982 and 1991. He is third in the club's all-time appearance list with 343 appearances, the highest placed non-Frenchman. On 22 September 1984, in a 7–1 home drubbing of Bastia, he assisted on five of the side's goals. At 36, Sušić left the capital for a final year with Red Star Saint-Ouen.

International career

During Sušić's playing career, Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and thus he represented the Yugoslavia national football team at international level.

Between 1977 and 1990, Sušić appeared 54 times with Yugoslavia, scoring 21 times. He debuted for Yugoslavia in 1977 and scored his first goals for the team against Hungary in October of that year. A month later, he scored a hat-trick in a 6–4 defeat of Romania during 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification. However, this was Yugoslavia's only victory of their group and they failed to qualify for the tournament finals.

In June 1979, Sušić scored his second international hat-trick as Yugoslavia beat Italy 4–1 in a friendly match held in Zagreb. In September, he again scored three times in a 4–2 win over world champions Argentina.^[4]

Sušić was a member of the Yugoslav team that qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, scoring once in a 5–0 defeat of Luxembourg.

Sušić was top scorer for Yugoslavia in qualification for UEFA Euro 1984. His two goals in a 3–2 win over Bulgaria in the final qualification fixture helping enable Yugoslavia to finish three points ahead of the Bulgarians and one point ahead of Wales and advance to the tournament finals. Yugoslavia ultimately finished bottom of their group in France, losing all three matches.

At the age of 35, Sušić made his second appearance at a World Cup finals as a member of Yugoslavia's squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. He scored his only World Cup goal in the team's 4–1 win against the United Arab Emirates during the group stage. He played 61 minutes before being substituted for Dejan Savićević in the penalty shootout loss to eventual runners-up Argentina at the quarter-final stage.^[5]

In 2004, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.^[6][7]

His former international teammate, the Macedonian Darko Pančev declared:

"It's well known how much I valued and still do value Safet Sušić. For me he's unsurpassable, the best Yugoslavia had. Probably one of the best in the world. I was often known to say that us other players should have to pay to play in the same team as Pape. At least I always talked and thought like that. Pape was a treasure for every forward. His crosses were unbelievable. Sometimes his ball would hit me without me even being aware of it. A wonderful player."^[8]

On 5 February 2010, France Football chose Sušić as the best player in the history of Paris Saint-Germain, ahead of players such as Carlos Bianchi, Mustapha Dahleb, Ronaldinho, George Weah, Joël Bats, Raí and Luis Fernández.^[9][10]

He scored three international hat-tricks for Yugoslavia, in victories against Romania, Italy, and Argentina in the late 1970s,^[11] and was voted, as part of the UEFA Jubilee Awards, the greatest ever player from Bosnia.

Managerial career

Safet Sušić portrait.

Sušić coached Cannes, where he retired as a player, briefly in 1994–95. Between 1997–1999, he managed İstanbulspor during 2003–04, with Konyaspor, and in the first half of 2006–07, taking charge of Çaykur Rizespor (12 matches). After he was sacked by Rizespor, another Turkish side, in February 2008,^[12] Sušić was hired by Ankaraspor in March.^[13]

Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 28 December 2009, Sušić was named coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team.^[14] His debut was a friendly match against Ghana in Sarajevo. Bosnia and Herzegovina won the game 2–1 after goals from Vedad Ibišević and Miralem Pjanić. After only 2 wins in Sušić's 6 first matches in charge of the national team, including an important 2–0 loss to France in the qualification for Euro 2012, Sušić came under a lot of criticism from several journalists and columnists who called for his head.^[15][16] Sušić recorded a 1–1 draw with France during a second game in Paris and ensured Bosnia qualified for their second consecutive qualification play-off birth for EURO 2012 to be played against Portugal in November.^[17][18]

2014 FIFA World Cup with Bosnia

From August 2012 to August 2013, Sušić's Bosnia national football side was on a nine-game unbeaten streak run. On 8 August 2013, the Bosnian national team achieved their highest ever FIFA ranking, the 13th place.^[19] On 15 October 2013, Bosnia qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, their first major tournament in their history as an independent nation.^[20] Sušić's side fared well in their first World Cup match against Argentina despite losing 2-1. An unlucky own goal and some brilliance from football legend Lionel Messi saw them to a defeat. However, highs taken from the match were the good play the team demonstrated and the materialisation of their first World Cup goal scored by Vedad Ibišević. The team however controversially exited the competition at the group stage of the tournament after their second game against Nigeria having an equaliser scored by Edin Džeko wrongly disallowed for offside. This revitalised the calls for reformation of the FIFA governing body and the replacement of linesmen with technology so as to remove human error from lines decisions. Bosnia won their last game in the competition against Iran with a healthy 3–1 victory which would've seen them through instead of Nigeria, who incidentally failed to defeat Iran, to a round of 16 match with France. In July 2014, Sušić signed a two-year contract to continue as coach, after he removed his resignation.^[21]

On 17 November 2014, Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Safet Sušić parted ways after poor showing of the national team in the first 4 games of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.^{[22][23][24][25][26]}

Évian

On 13 July 2015, Safet Sušić was named manager of 2nd tier French club Évian. On his debut he registered a draw. After first four rounds, his new side registered 4 drawn games.^[27]

On 11 January 2016 Safet Sušić was sacked by Évian due to run of poor results at the club. After 20 rounds, Sušić's Évian was placed 13th on the table and were eliminated from French cup at third round.ref. He was replaced by Romain Revelli.

Statistics

Player statistics

National team

Managerial statistics

Team	Tenure	M	W	D	L	Win %	Points per game[28]	Achievements
Cannes	1994–1995	42	17	10	15	40.5%	1.45
İstanbulspor	1996–1998	62	33	9	20	53.2%	1.74
Al-Hilal	2001	3	1	1	1	33.3%	1.33
Konyaspor	2004–2005	1	1	0	0	100%	3.00
Ankaragücü	2005–2006	2	2	0	0	100%	3.00
Çaykur Rizespor	2006–2008	17	6	3	8	35.3%	1.24
Ankaraspor	2008–2009	10	5	2	3	50.0%	1.70
Bosnia-Herzegovina	2009–2014	50	23	9	18	44.0%	1.50	2014 FIFA World Cup Group stage
Évian	2015–2016	20	5	6	9	25.0%	1.05
Totals		207	93	44	69

Table correct as at 9 January 2016 (after Évian tenure).

International goals

Scores and results table. Yugoslavia's goal tally first:

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	5 October 1977	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	1–2	3–4	Friendly
2	5 October 1977	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	2–4	3–4	Friendly
3	13 November 1977	Bucharest, Romania	Romania	1–1	6–4	1978 World Cup qualifier
4	13 November 1977	Bucharest, Romania	Romania	3–3	6–4	1978 World Cup qualifier
5	13 November 1977	Bucharest, Romania	Romania	4–3	6–4	1978 World Cup qualifier
6	13 June 1979	Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Italy	1–1	4–1	Friendly
7	13 June 1979	Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Italy	2–1	4–1	Friendly
8	13 June 1979	Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Italy	3–1	4–1	Friendly
9	16 September 1979	Marakana, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Argentina	1–0	4–2	Friendly
10	16 September 1979	Marakana, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Argentina	2–0	4–2	Friendly
11	16 September 1979	Marakana, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Argentina	3–0	4–2	Friendly
12	30 March 1980	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Romania	2–0	2–0	Balkan Cup
13	27 August 1980	Bucharest, Romania	Romania	1–3	1–4	Balkan Cup
14	10 September 1980	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1–0	5–0	1982 World Cup qualifier
15	12 October 1983	JNA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Norway	2–0	2–1	Euro 1984 qualifier
16	21 December 1983	Poljud, Split, Yugoslavia	Bulgaria	1–1	3–2	Euro 1984 qualifier
17	21 December 1983	Poljud, Split, Yugoslavia	Bulgaria	2–1	3–2	Euro 1984 qualifier
18	2 June 1984	Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	1–1	3–2	Friendly
19	7 June 1984	La Línea, Spain	Spain	1–0	1–0	Friendly
20	19 November 1988	JNA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia	France	2–2	3–2	1990 World Cup qualifier
21	19 June 1990	Dall'Ara, Bologna, Italy	United Arab Emirates	1–0	4–1	1990 World Cup

Honours

Club

Paris Saint-Germain

• French Division 1: 1985–86
• French Cup: 1982–83

Individual

• Yugoslav First League Top Goalscorer: 1979–80
• Ligue 1 Foreign Player of the Year: 1982–83
• UEFA Jubilee Awards – Greatest Bosnian Footballer of the last 50 Years: 2003

Personal life

Sušić comes from a sporting family; as Sead Sušić, is a former footballer, is Safet's older brother. Safet's nephew, Tino-Sven Sušić, is also a footballer, currently a player in the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team who also alongside Safet appeared at 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Safet Sušić.

Yugoslavia squads
Yugoslavia squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Pantelić 2 Jerolimov 3 Gudelj 4 Zajec 5 Stojković 6 Krmpotić 7 Petrović 8 Šljivo 9 Zo. Vujović 10 Živković 11 Zl. Vujović 12 Pudar 13 Sušić 14 Jovanović 15 Hrstić 16 Šestić 17 Jerković 18 Deverić 19 Halilhodžić 20 Šurjak (c) 21 Pašić 22 Svilar Coach: Miljanić Yugoslavia squad – UEFA Euro 1984 1 Simović 2 N. Stojković 3 Baljić 4 Katanec 5 Zajec (c) 6 Radanović 7 Šestić 8 Gudelj 9 Sušić 10 Baždarević 11 Vujović 12 Ivković 13 Hadžibegić 14 Elsner 15 Miljuš 16 D. Stojković 17 Čop 18 Deverić 19 Halilović 20 Cvetković Coach: Veselinović Yugoslavia squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Ivković 2 Stanojković 3 Spasić 4 Vulić 5 Hadžibegić 6 Jozić 7 Brnović 8 Sušić 9 Pančev 10 Stojković 11 Vujović (c) 12 Omerović 13 Katanec 14 Bokšić 15 Prosinečki 16 Šabanadžović 17 Jarni 18 Baljić 19 Savićević 20 Šuker 21 Panadić 22 Leković Coach: Osim

Bosnia and Herzegovina squad – 2014 FIFA World Cup
1 Begović 2 Vršajević 3 Bičakčić 4 Spahić (c) 5 Kolašinac 6 Vranješ 7 Bešić 8 Pjanić 9 Ibišević 10 Misimović 11 Džeko 12 Fejzić 13 Mujdža 14 T. Sušić 15 Šunjić 16 Lulić 17 Ibričić 18 Medunjanin 19 Višća 20 Hajrović 21 Hadžić 22 Avdukić 23 Salihović Coach: S. Sušić