SLAVOLJUB MUSLIN

'Slavoljub Muslin' (born June 15, 1953 in Belgrade, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian football manager and a former player. He began his head coaching career in 1988 and has since had stints in France, Morocco, Serbia-Montenegro, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belgium and Russia.
Prior to that, Muslin was a notable football player. He played as a defender for Red Star Belgrade and later Lille OSC.

Contents

Playing career

Coaching career

External links

Playing career

Born to Croatian father Duje Muslin (from Split) and Serbian mother (from Kragujevac), Slavoljub Muslin was born and raised in Belgrade where he started playing football with OFK Beograd, continuing on in BASK, and FK Rad before transferring to Red Star Belgrade.
Muslin was a defensive stalwart for Red Star Belgrade in the 1970s. Throughout his 7 years at ''Marakana'' he played alongside some of the club's biggest stars like Dragan Džajić, Vladislav Bogićević, Jovan Aćimović, Vladimir Petrović, Dušan Savić, among others. He has won three championship titles with Red Star and lost a UEFA Cup final in 1979.
In 1981, he moved on to Lille OSC and eventually finished his career with Stade Brestois 29.

Coaching career

Muslin began coaching in 1988 at the same club he ended his playing career in - Stade Brestois 29 - staying there until 1992. For the last two years of his tenure he had David Ginola in the squad.
Muslin spent the next three seasons at Pau FC before moving on to Girondins de Bordeaux in 1995 for a year. With a potent squad of quality players like Bixente Lizarazu, Christophe Dugarry as well as superstar-in-the-making Zinedine Zidane, Muslin led the team to a 1996 UEFA Cup final appearance where they lost to a Bayern Munich team featuring the likes of Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, Oliver Kahn, Markus Babbel, etc.
RC Lens became Muslin's home in the summer of 1996. He coached the team in 1996/97 season before getting the axe on March 11, 1997.
He went to Le Mans UC72 in the fall of 1997 and stayed there until the end of 1997/98 season.
He changed clubs during the 1998/99 season, moving to coaching the Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca.
His old club Red Star Belgrade came calling in late summer 1999. Muslin took over the reigns on September 20, in difficult circumstances after Miloljub Ostojić got sacked because of poor league form and embarrassing first leg "home" loss (match was played in Sofia due to air traffic embargo impossed on FR Yugoslavia following NATO bombing in spring of 1999) to Montpellier HSC in UEFA Cup first round. Though he couldn't lead his squad past the French team in the second leg, Muslin won the domestic double (league & cup) at the end of the season in an impressive fashion. He won the league again next season, but lost in the cup final to bitter rivals FK Partizan. He resigned his post on September 30, 2001, six weeks into the 2001/02 season. The specific reason was never given, but it is widely believed it had to do with an ongoing simmering row with striker Mihailo Pjanović that came to a head during a Champions League 3rd round qualifying tie when Muslin dropped him and Red Star ended up losing 0-3 to Bayer Leverkusen.
Muslin was not without a job for too long as in late March 2002 Levski Sofia sacked their coach Rüdiger Abramczik mid-season and offered the job to the Serbian who promptly steered the team to the league and cup double in May. The next season 2002/03, he won the Bulgarian Cup again, but came up short in the league.
In June 2003, Red Star came calling again after two fruitless seasons under coach Zoran Filipović. By the following spring Muslin brought his third title to the club as a coach, though just like in 2000/01 couldn't pull the double, this time losing the final to Sartid Smederevo. The split from Red Star was again full of controversy. After winning the title, Muslin reportedly wanted more say in club's transfer policy, essentially calling for his coaching role to be expanded into what managers in English clubs do. Red Star president Dragan Džajić would have none of it and a huge row erupted. At one point, usually calm and collected Džajić exploded in the media calling Muslin "the worst person he's ever met".
The next stop for Muslin in summer 2004 became Ukraine's Metalurh Donetsk, which he coached fairly successfully for the better part of 2004/05 domestic league season. He resigned his post on March 8, 2005, citing differences in opinion over the vision for the team's immediate future as the reason. His departure came after league matchday 17 with Metalurh occupying the 3rd spot in Vyscha Liha. Simultaneously, Muslin also led the team in 2004/05 UEFA Cup - with much less distinguished outcome - after successfully overcoming the qualifying stage, Metalurh was demolished by SS Lazio (0-6 on aggregate).
Then came Belgian side Lokeren between May and December 2005.
In December 2005, Muslin was appointed as coach of Lokomotiv Moscow. With star forward Dmitri Sychev as the team's undisputed leader on the pitch, Lokomotiv started the Russian League 2006 season in great fashion, jumping ahead early to the top of the table and going on an 18-match unbeaten streak at one point. Closely pursued by CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv kept holding on to the top league spot until mid-October when a string of indifferent results saw them surrender it. Muslin was already under the gun following his team's elimination in UEFA Cup's first round to Belgian side S.V. Zulte Waregem, and after giving up the league leading position, he was promptly fired in October 2006.
On November 26, 2006, Muslin's return to Lokeren bench was announced. He arrived at the club in the middle of a bad run of results that prompted previous coach Ariël Jacobs' departure with Lokeren in 13th league spot. However, Muslin failed to raise the team's form and Lokeren barely avoided relegation, finishing the Belgian Jupiler League 2006/07 campaign in 16th spot (out of 18 teams). During the summer 2007, Muslin was replaced with Georges Leekens.
On September 7, 2007, Muslin was announced as the new coach of FC Khimki. At the time of his arrival following matchday 23 of the 2007 season, the team was occupying 11th league spot, only three points out of the relegation zone.

External links

★ Website from LEVSKI2000

★ Upoznavanje u trku, ''Glas javnosti'', September 21, 1999

★ Muslin podneo ostavku, Gov't of Serbia Web Portal, September 30, 2001

★ Povratak Slavoljuba Muslina u Zvezdu, Gov't of Serbia Web Portal, June 10, 2003

★ Zbogom Zvezdi zbog principa, ''Dnevnik'', May 24, 2004

★ Muslin talks about young talent Milan Pršo, as well as his own ethnic origins, ''Slobodna Dalmacija'', January 30, 2005

★ Muslin više nije trener Metalurga, B92, March 8, 2005

★ Osvojicu Rusiju, ''Kurir'', October, 5, 2006