Bora Milutinović

Bora Milutinović

Milutinovic in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Velibor Milutinović
Date of birth	(1944-09-07) 7 September 1944
Place of birth	Bajina Bašta, Yugoslavia
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1954–1958	Bor
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1958–1960	OFK Beograd	15	(2)
1960–1966	Partizan	40	(3)
1965–1966	→ OFK 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
2014	Shaanxi Wuzhou (sporting director)
2014	China (advisor)
2014–2024	Shaanxi Wuzhou (sporting advisor)
Medal record Men's football Representing Mexico (as manager) CONCACAF Gold Cup Winner 1996 United States Team Copa América 1997 Bolivia Team Representing United States (as manager) CONCACAF Gold Cup Winner 1991 United States Team Runner-up 1993 United States-Mexico Team FIFA Confederations Cup 1992 Saudi Arabia Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Velibor "Bora" Milutinović (Serbian Cyrillic: Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager.

He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record alongside Brazilian manager Carlos Alberto Parreira, but did so in five consecutive World Cups with different teams: Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002). He is also the first manager to take four teams beyond the first round – all but China – 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 managed eight national football teams.

Managing career

World Cup national teams

Mexico (1983–86)

Milutinović led Mexico to the quarter-finals at the 1986 FIFA 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 FIFA World Cup and got Costa Rica into the second round. In 1990, Milutinović was hired as head 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 losing 4–1 to Czechoslovakia 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 U.S. national team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, hosted in the United States, where the 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. This was hailed as a success for a country with little soccer experience. Bora’s name was used for the 1994 World Cup set manufactured by the Upper Deck Company.

The USSF fired Milutinović on 14 April 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 FIFA 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's coaching, for the first time ever, the China national team qualified to be among the 32 finalists for the World Cup in 2002. He was hailed as a hero in China, ending a 44-year drought, and was popularly known as Milu. However, unlike his previous forays, Milutinović could not take the Chinese team past the first round due to their inexperience at the world stage.

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.

Club teams

Milutinović's managerial career at club level has seen more mixed success. His longest managerial spell for a single club was his tenure with UNAM of Mexico from 1977 to 1983. Several of his Pumas players ended up playing for Mexico at the 1986 World Cup.

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

Managerial statistics

Year(s)	Nat	Team	G	W	D	L	Win %	GF	GA	Ref(s)
1977–1983		UNAM	218	96	59	63	44	406	299
1983-1986, 1995-1997		Mexico	104	52	32	20	50	172	101
1987		San Lorenzo	8	4	4	0	50.0	8	2
1987		Udinese	9	3	0	6	33.3	6	10
1988		Veracruz
1988–1989		Tecos UAG
1990–1991		Costa Rica	9	3	0	6	33.3	7	13
1991–1995		United States	96	30	31	35	31.3	116	110
1997–1998		Nigeria	11	3	2	6	27.3	10	22
1998–1999		NY/NJ MetroStars	33	5	3	25	15.2
2000–2002		China	46	20	11	15	43.5	75	50
2003–2004		Honduras	10	2	4	4	20.0	12	14
2004–2005		Al-Sadd
2006–2007		Jamaica	6	1	1	4	16.7	5	15
2009		Iraq	4	0	3	1	0.0	1	2

Personal life

The Milutinović brothers (left to right): Milorad, Miloš and Bora

Milutinović comes from a footballing family; he and his two brothers Miloš and Milorad played together for Partizan.

His father was killed in World War II, his mother by tuberculosis soon after the war. He said he does not 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. Aside from his native Serbo-Croatian, he is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and French.

Honours

Player

UNAM

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

Manager

UNAM

• Liga MX: 1980–81
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1980, 1982
• Copa Interamericana: 1981

United States

• Gold Cup: 1991
• Gold Cup: runner-up 1993

Mexico

• Gold Cup: 1996

External links

• Bora Milutinović – Liga MX stats at MedioTiempo.com (archived) (in Spanish)
• Barreaud, Marc (1998). Dictionnaire des footballeurs étrangers du championnat professionnel français (1932–1997). L'Harmattan, Paris. ISBN 2-7384-6608-7.