Igor Štimac

Igor Štimac ( born 6 September 1967) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player.

He is currently coaching the India national football team.

In his playing career, Štimac had three spells with Hajduk Split and also played for Cádiz in Spain, and for Derby County and West Ham United in England.

He also represented Yugoslavia when they won the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Previously, Štimac was a member of the highly talented Yugoslavia under-20 team that won the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship in Chile, playing four games and scoring two goals in the tournament.

Štimac arrived at the Baseball Ground on 31 October 1995 for a fee of £1.5 million from Hajduk Split.

He scored a goal on his debut for the Rams away at Tranmere, but the Rams fell to a heavy 5–1 defeat.

The rest of the season was more successful, as Derby gained promotion and remained unbeaten in 20 consecutive matches.

During this time he formed a strong partnership with Dean Yates in the centre of Derby's defence.

Štimac played nearly four years with the Rams, and made 84 league appearances for the Rams, in addition to seven FA Cup appearances and two League Cup appearances.

He represented the Croatia national team 53 times, playing at Euro 1996 and at the 1998 World Cup, when Croatia finished third.

Štimac played for the Croatia national team, winning 53 caps and scoring two goals, and formed part of a Croatia squad that won the bronze medal at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

He was sold on 29 August 1999 to West Ham United for £600,000, where he scored once, against Newcastle United.

Štimac started his managerial career in 2001, taking charge of the Hajduk Split football academy and also acting as the club's sport director.

His final international was a February 2002 friendly match against Bulgaria.

Hajduk won two championships during this time (2003–04 and 2004–05).

In 2004–05 season he took managerial position for the last 10 games after replacing Blaž Slišković.

With many difficulties he managed to win championship but lost the cup final to HNK Rijeka.

In the spring of 2006, he also spent a few months coaching Croatian first division side Cibalia, saving them from relegation.

On 14 September 2009, he was appointed as the new NK Zagreb manager after they lost the first seven games of the season, replacing Luka Pavlović.

However Štimac managed to save NK Zagreb from relegation and left the club at the end of the season.

As a manager, Štimac was in charge of the Croatia national team from 2012 to 2013.

In club football, he has had brief spells in charge of Hajduk Split, Cibalia, NK Zagreb, Zadar, Iranian club Sepahan and Qatari club Al-Shahania.

On 5 July 2012, Štimac was appointed as the new Croatia national football team manager, after the departure of his former national team teammate Slaven Bilić.

His first match as Croatia manager came in a friendly game against Switzerland at Poljud Stadium, which ended in a disappointing 2–4 loss.

Then started a period of very poor results starting with a 0–1 loss to Scotland at Maksimir on 7 June 2013.

Following this Croatia lost 0–1 in a friendly match to Portugal on 10 June 2013 and then barely beat 148th ranked Liechtenstein 3–2 in a friendly match thanks to an 86th-minute goal by Eduardo on 14 August 2013.

In their next world cup qualifying match, Croatia drew 1–1 against rivals Serbia in Belgrade, despite only having one shot on target and two shots overall.

This was followed by another loss at home at Maksimir, this time to eventual group winners Belgium with a result of 1–2.

With only one World Cup qualifying match to go, Štimac had become widely unpopular in Croatia with one poll conducted by popular domestic newspaper 24sata resulting in 98% of voters in favor of sacking Štimac.

On 15 October 2013, Croatia lost their final World Cup qualifying match 0–2 against Scotland.

After the 0–2 loss to Scotland, Štimac tendered his resignation to the HNS president, former star footballer and national team teammate of Štimac, Davor Šuker.

The following day, Šuker accepted his resignation.

Croatia ending qualifying as the second to last ranked second place team, having only one more point than last placed Denmark, thus taking the final play-off round spot.

Despite some criticism Štimac managed to take the FIFA Ranking of Croatia to 4th position just behind Spain, Germany and Argentina, respectively.

Players like Mateo Kovačić and Alen Halilović also made their debuts for the Croatia national team during Štimac's stint.

Despite that loss, Croatia entered the 2014 World Cup qualifies in decent fashion, taking 16 points from first six games.

However, the results were not representative of Croatia's form on the pitch, as the team only had a goal difference of +7 from those six matches and scored the majority of their goals from set pieces, counterattacks, and defensive errors by their opponents.

On 15 May 2019, Štimac was appointed as the head coach of India national team on a two-year contract.

At the club level Štimac played for his local Croatian club Hajduk Split and, most notably, the English club Derby County.