Ivankovic talks Croatia, Iran and coaching Oman

Having coached several clubs in IR Iran, China PR and Saudi Arabia, the Croatian Branko Ivankovic was already an established name in Asian football before taking the helm of the Omani national team at the beginning of this year.

Now he is hoping to draw on his extensive experience to lead Oman to a maiden appearance at the FIFA World Cup™.

Ivankovic has enjoyed considerable success over the years. As assistant to Miroslav Blazevic, he helped Croatia to third place at France 1998 then led IR Iran to Germany 2006. At club level, he has also picked up silverware in Croatia, China and Iran.

In conversation with FIFA.com, Ivankovic spoke about the difference between coaching clubs and national teams, his new challenge with Oman, his experience coaching IR Iran at Germany 2006, and the success enjoyed by Croatia at France 1998 and Russia 2018.

Branko Ivankovic: Honestly, after my work in Iran and Saudi Arabia, I wanted to take a break, but the Oman Football Association contacted me, inquired about the possibility of me taking over the national team and told me all about their programme. It’s a new challenge for me and my goal is to achieve things with the Sultanate and develop the game, which is lacking professionalism in the Middle East in general. Players need more experiences and need to work harder. It’s an enormous challenge for me.

Nine months after your appointment, you’re still waiting to take charge of your first game. Has that been difficult for you?

Unfortunately, football has been suspended all over the world for several months due to the coronavirus, and of course this applied to Oman too. The players haven’t had any games in the last five months or any [squad] training sessions, which is a problem for us. Personally, I’m not happy about the lack of competitions and friendly matches, but the good thing is that we’ll have an opportunity in October and November to get the players together and see how they perform after several months with no games. The next official match for Oman will be March 2021, but we must prepare well before then, and the players must compete in the local league in order to regain their form after that prolonged hiatus.

Oman is only the second national team you’ve coached. Does this mean you’re more comfortable working with clubs?

I’m lucky because when I started my career, I was coaching at a club but part of the technical staff of the Croatia national team at the same time. It was a great experience for me. Personally, I follow two distinct approaches depending on whether I’m working with a club or a national team. There’s a big difference between the two jobs. With a club, you get to work with players on a daily basis, but with national teams, you only see them in training camps. After I’d coached a number of clubs early on in my career, I had a great experience with the Croatian national team, which competed at the 1996 EURO and the 1998 World Cup. After that, I took over IR Iran, where I spent four years.

Based on your coaching experience, what’s the difference between coaching a club and a national team?

There’s a very big difference between the two. With clubs, you get enough time to select the players and work with them on a daily basis. You get to know a lot about the club, discover young players, and have the pressure of a game every three days or so. This is very good for me because I personally love to work every day. This continuity helps you achieve something with the club where you see the players once or twice a day, which in turn helps you learn a lot about them and how they develop.

On the other hand, you don’t get to spend enough time with a national team. You have to make quick decisions. Players sometimes arrive to the training camp a few days before official games. It gets very difficult when you play the qualifiers during international breaks. With major tournaments, you have more time but you have to select the best players and make quick decisions. Moreover, there are players who don’t get enough playing time with their clubs or are not performing well, which you have to bear in mind all the time. The most important thing for a coach, whether with a club or national team, is to provide a good atmosphere and create harmony between the players.

Do you think the current generation is the best in Croatia’s history?

It’s certainly difficult to compare the two generations. Each generation has its own characteristics, but in terms of results, we have to bear in mind that in 1994 and after the war, Croatia built a national team from scratch and at that time nobody knew about us or expected big things from us. It was difficult at the time to put ourselves on the world football map. However, people started to respect us as a team because we played at the EURO and World Cup after these challenging times. Twenty years later, Croatia came second at the World Cup, which definitely means there is something special about this current generation. Comparing the two of them is difficult, but we have to admit that both were excellent and we’re proud of each of them.

Did you believe you could achieve such a result before the start of the tournament?

Yes! It may be surprising, but during our entire preparations, Mr Blazevic and I believed in the team’s ability to succeed so we tried to convince the players and everyone around us that we should be very ambitious in France. We wanted to do something big. We had players with experience and titles at top clubs. Moreover, they had extensive international experience and the atmosphere was great. We were all united.

FIFA.COM