Former Croatia captain and manager, Niko Kovač, is to be named new head coach at Bayern Munich, ESPN reports. The 46 year-old Kovač has been the manager at Eintracht Frankfurt for the past two and a half seasons; helping them survive a relegation playoff in 2016 while getting them within two points of a Champions League berth with five matches remaining this campaign.
Kovač was the manager of Croatia during the 2014 World Cup, but it didn’t last long as he was accused of having a strict regime which did not play well in the locker room. Kovač had 10 wins and five draws to his name as Croatia manager in 19 matches at the helm.
Wasn’t good enough for most of you peasants on here but he’s good enough to coach the biggest German club. Don’t worry we can always get a part time electrician or plumber to coach the national side. Perfect.
Modric apparently had a knee problem against Juve.
@Zee
Hey, it’s not proposterous.
Expectations are high for Cro, and if we get eliminated in the first round I have no doubt that Dalić will be fired.
Carlo Ancelotti would definitely be talked about in the media, Ancelotti would listen.
He’s never taken more than a one year break from coaching, so he would definitely want to get back into coaching this summer. None of the elite level clubs are likely to make a coaching change (unless he wants to go to a horrible AC Milan situation).
Taking over coaching duties with a stacked Croatian midfield (including a couple players you’ve already coached in the past) would be a good option. We probably wouldn’t have to pay a super premium for him (like teams like Russia or Turkey have to do to get good coaches to coach their mediocre teams).
@ BZ
Modrić will be rested for CL matches.
Real Madrid has a full week to prepare for Bayern.
Kovačić is going to pick up his minutes.
Real Crodrid has secured a top 4 finish.
They will play the young guys regardless of CL.
Actually see Modric only starting 3 more matches the rest of the way.
Just enough to keep him sharp for World Cup.
Zidane knows Luka is always key to their CL success.
Ask Barcelona if anyone cares about La Liga versus CL GLORY?
3 CL in a row?
Immortality.
I know maminjo i was just kidding.
@Soul Champ- Crazy talk. I want Modric’s injury opportunities reduced, go Bayern! If Kovac is a great coach (which he is not, due to his lack of ability to see talent) he will handle the huge expectations at Bayern.
ps- although a Real Crodrid win only adds one more game, if they lose, the rest of this failed season will go to young prospects. A well rested Modric.
Carlo would coach Croatia for 1.5 million (maybe even 1 million).
But we just signed Dalić to a 2-year contract, so we would have to completely flop in the first round for him to get fired.
How much are we going to pay Carlo?
Just checked…
Switzerland pays Petković €850,000. Belgium pays Martinez €1 million.
Honestly, those are excellent coaches. We’re not too far off, salary wise, to snag an elite coach like them. We would have a significant advantage too with the talent we have.
They upped the salary of our National Team coach quite a bit over the past few years.
I think Dalic makes something like $750k per year.
Four years ago, Kovac was third-lowest paid coach in the World Cup making something like 250k (in Euros).
We’ve essentially doubled our coaching salary, and I believe we are in the middle of the pack in this World Cup for salary.
Money is not the issue anymore. People keep babbling about HNS being cheap and that a foreign coach would fix everything, but none of it is true.
Our issue is that (since the Stimac hiring) we have been firing coaches at the worst possible time (with literally a couple games before the end of the qualifying campaign).
No self respecting coach would ever take over a terrible situation like that, so it becomes slim pickings.
If we actually hire a coach PRIOR to the beginning of a new qualifying campaign, we would have coaches lining up to coach this team.
If only the national team could ever spend the money for a big club, talented coach like kovac. Surely with the talent the team has, they would definitely win the world cup
@ Faux Cro
Tomislav Ivić was the Grgur Ninskii of Croatian footballing managers.
He is in class by himself.
Bayern is a mega club.
That is what makes this appointment big time.
Kovac hopefully will bring through a new wave of young Croatian talent through Bayern as they need to revitalize at the wings.
Will see if Kovač has learned how to deal with super star egos?
Bayern is the Hollywood of German football.
Now I double hope Real Crodrid beat Bayern this year.
At least Kovac is NOT Peder Pep.
@Soul Champ
Tomislav Ivic was the real deal. He was a big time coach.
RIP
Don’t forget that random kid from Solin that invented that smart bench with solar panels, WiFi and quick charging for all your devices.
It’s probably the best smart bench out there, and he’s got orders from across the globe.
Lots of great engineering minds in Cro. That’s what they need to invest in.
We’ve had players playing for the biggest clubs for a number of years now, so it was only a matter of time before one of our coaches began leading a big club! And it’s a testament to Croatia’s growth as a footballing nation.
So a lot of things to be proud of Intellectually and Athletically for the Croatian People:
-The Rimac automobile was one of the main highlights of the Geneva Auto Show.
-Ivan Saric won the individual European Chess championship this year.
-We got players playing for elite footballing clubs through out Europe. In tourney competition we got Lovren and Modric still competing in the Champions League, and Vrsajko and Caleta-Car still in it in the Europa League.
-Kovac was named coach of Bayern. (Which I think he’ll get a massive war chest to add reinforcements after Robben, Ribery, and Lewa go. Who knows? Maybe he’ll bring a Hrvat or two!)
So yeah, feels good to be a Hrvat!
I take Leko as our NT coach well before I give Kovac another shot.
agreed
scape goat situation
I saw an article highlighting him as a creative coach almost spit my water out
german school player.
sorry, maminjo I didn’t see your post.
That’s right Bayern, put a Croat in a no win situation.
This will not end well, unless Bayern substantially upgrades it’s aging stars.
Awesome for Niko, class act!
Funny.. 4 weeks ago was in a taxi to Frankfurt airport and the Turkish cab driver (when not praising fenerbache) told me kovac was the next Bayern mgr…. because he’s tight with the president
Losing Lewandowski and a couple other big names would be good for Kovač. Expectations would be lower, and there would be less risk of one of these primma donnas blowing up on him as he tries to instill his disciplinarian style.
Kovač was Bayern’s fourth choice, and my guess is that Hasan Salihamidžić pushed for Kovač.
I think Bayern may be planning for a “transition” year by moving away from some of their old stars. The Kovač hire makes sense in this regard. His style may have worked at Eintracht where the team is filled with nobodys, but this is an entirely different scenario.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Wow thats pretty big news. There will be a lot of pressure ..i hope he does well.
Well, that’s it boys; Kovac is the greatest coach in THE WORLD !
😉
A German born Hrvat.
Good for him. He’s got quite the resume now. Could be a bit of a transition though if they lose Lewandowski and Robben and Riberys influence.
Is this the highest profile club for a Hrvat to manager ever?
Props for Niko for evolving as a manager and further props for revitalizing Ante Rebic floundering career.
Wonder which Hrvati he will seek to bring on?
Hope Bayern lose in CL semis as Jupp Heynkes is an impossible act to follow.
Croatian football is growing. This move is big time!