Today Radomir Antic died five years ago, who was the only coach Real, Barca and Atlético coached – the latter in a particularly formative manner. About a unique life’s work.
Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona: Spain’s bitter rivals and great football powers can look back on a legendary history. The only trainer who can accommodate all three club history books: Radomir Antic.
On April 6, 2020 – today five years ago – the Serb died of a pancreas at the age of 71. However, his achievement of having trained all three Spanish giants will probably remain unique for a long time.
Antic was considered a grinder as a representative of the Yugoslav Football School, but he was more than that: he was also an innovative tactic with great expertise and, above all, also had a great human. He was extremely popular with his players.
His former Atlético striker Kiko described him as “a big coach and even larger people” after his death. Ex-barca goalkeeper Victor Valdés found “no words for my pain”. For real legend Míchel, he was “a father”.
About boxing and chess to football
Before writing history as a coach in Spain, Antic – born on November 22, 1948 in Citist – was also quite successful as a player. After trying in basketball, boxing and chess in his youth, “Rade”, as he was called briefly, should finally gain a foothold in football.
The win of the Yugoslavia championship (Partizan Belgrade) is in its vita, as is the league title in Turkey (Fenerbahce). There is also a header for Partizan, in which he suffered a skull fracture. In England he rose with Luton Town as a second division champion and then saved the relegation with a late goal on the last match day.
Antic’s then coach David Pleat had a formative influence on his coaching career: when Antic asked his coach for a more offensive game orientation, he taught him pragmatism. “He pointed to the stands and said, ‘As long as they are full, we don’t have the right to change something,'” recalled Antic afterwards. The view, for which he initially showed little understanding, finally took over in his coaching career: a compact English 4-4-2 system with freedom for artists and the focus on standards that Antic’s teams were supposed to characterize.
At Real Madrid: Disappointed as leaders
After his end of his career in 1984, he only hired as an assistant coach at Partizan for a year before he started his first job as head coach in 1988 – at the Spanish first division team Saragossa, for whom he was also active as a player. There he made a name for himself so that Real Madrid became aware of him. At the royal, he inherited the club icon Alfredo di Stéfano in 1991 and led the mediocre club back to third place before he was released in the following season, even though Madrid gave the table with three points.
The reason is said to have been an unspectacular game system and a team leadership that is too authoritarian. On the context: At Rival Barcelona, Legende Johan Cruyff had a football that was so bristling, the demands were high. Without the “Mister”, as Antic called in his Serbian homeland because of his gentleman appearance, Real should gamble the championship.
The legendary double with Atlético
Around five years later, in the meantime, Antic had been with Real Oviedo, he then achieved the big throw. As a trainer of real competitor Atlético, he won the national double of the championship and cup in 1996, the only one in club history. Previously, Atlético had used an incredible ten coaches within two seasons, stood shortly before the bankruptcy and had only escaped from a descent.
A crucial part of his success had a yet largely unknown Milinko Pantic, which became the key factor in Madrid. Antic had brought the then 29-year-old, whom he knew from his time at Partizan, despite the resistance in Madrid from Panionios Athens. At that time, 500,000 euros RELUCE cost the services of the standard corypha.
“You just want to accommodate your friends here, like everyone else,” the controversial owner and club president Jesús Gil y Gil should have held out at first. “If you don’t pay it, I do it out of my own pocket,” Antic replied. The transfer went through – and open. Incredible 49 percent of the goals subsequently fell through standards, thanks to numerous variants and precise rehearsal as well as an outstanding standard shooter. A female fan is said to have always put a bouquet of flowers on the corner flag in honor.
Another important factor in Antic’s successful team was a certain Diego Simeone – whose own development to the success coach at Atlético Antic was happy: “As a trainer, he has the same characteristics as before,” said Antic 2016 in Sport1 interview: “He is a fighter, always prepared and can carry people away.”
Antic completes the trilogy at Barca
However, Antic’s success story in Atlético came to an end. In 1998 he went for the first time, but a year then he came back, but relegated. After a return to Real Oviedo, where he also descended, he finally ended up in 2003 as the successor to the failed Louis van Gaal at FC Barcelona and completed his personal triple of the Spanish giants.
As a fireman, he came in February, but in summer the chapter was over again. From twelve he led the Catalans to sixth place and thus still to participate in the UEFA Cup.
The great successes were then left out, but as a coach of the Serbian national team, he still fulfilled a dream at the 2010 World Cup. After the group phase, despite a victory against Germany, it was also the end, as a result for Antic.
A life for football
Antic withdrew after a short stop in China in the last few years of his life, but football always stayed in his life. In his adopted home Madrid, he followed the action in front of the television. Mostly in flip -flops and short trousers, he was lying on the couch with legs raised and staring at the action – usually there were several games at the same time.
Because a screen was not sufficient, in addition to the television, laptop, tablet and cell phone also had to serve. “A weekend when I don’t see twenty games is a lost weekend for me,” he once said during a visit – he lived a life for the football that he gave so much.