Bora Milutinović

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

His longest managerial spell for a single club was his tenure with UNAM of Mexico from 1977 to 1983.

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.

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.

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 Calcio of the Italian Serie B for nine matches in 1987.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He then managed the MetroStars of Major League Soccer to the worst record in league history in 1999.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Milutinović's managerial career at club level has seen more mixed success.