Miljan Miljanić

Previously, in 1922, Akim had arrived to Belgrade from Montenegro's Banjani region in order to study at the newly opened Geodesy School.

The family also consisted of mother Zorka and sisters Mira and Nada.

Miljan Miljanić (Миљан Миљанић; 4 May 1930 – 13 January 2012) was a Yugoslav and Serbian football administrator, coach and player who played as a defender.

Born in Bitola, Vardar Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to a family originating from the Banjani clan in the Nikšić municipality in Montenegro, Miljanić spent the first years of his life in what would later become SR Macedonia within SFR Yugoslavia and eventually present day North Macedonia.

Miljanić was born in 1930 in Bitola, a town his geometer father Akim Miljanić had moved the family to two years earlier in 1928 after finding employment there.

In 1941, with Nazi Germany invading, conquering, and dismembering Kingdom of Yugoslavia into territories administered by newly established local collaborationist regimes or neighbouring Axis powers states, the Miljanićs were forced into fleeing Bitola by the occupying Bulgarian force that had been handed the territory of Vardar Banovina by the Nazis.

The fleeing family first settled in the town of Jagodina followed by relocating to Kragujevac, a city reeling from the October 1941 massacre of more than 2,700 civilians committed by the Wehrmacht force.

In 1944, in Kragujevac, 14-year-old Miljanić reportedly joined the Yugoslav Partisans.

Following the end of World War II, the family moved to Belgrade in 1946.

Miljanić had three stints as the head coach of the Yugoslavia national football team, 1965–66, 1973–74 and 1979–82.

In addition to admirers, Miljanić has his share of detractors who feel his trademark cautious and defensive tactics, as well as reliance on older players, contributed to the Yugoslavia national team's poor results and unattractive play throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

During his colourful career, Miljanić coached Red Star Belgrade (won 10 trophies), Real Madrid (won back-to-back La Liga titles, including a League/Cup double in the 1974–75 season), Valencia CF (disappointing stint that lasted three quarters of the 1982–83 season when he got sacked with the team in 17th place in the league), and the Yugoslavia national team, of which he was a head coach in the 1974 and 1982 World Cups.

He coached the national team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Miljanić's arrival to Real during the summer 1974 transfer window came on the heels of a turbulent season that saw the famous club make a coaching change after almost 14 seasons of Miguel Muñoz at the helm.

The longtime coach's mid-season replacement Luis Molowny didn't fare well, losing 0–5 at home in El Clásico to the Johan Cruijff-led FC Barcelona in February 1974 and further cementing the club's league table placing away from the European spots.

Right away, the club's iconic president Santiago Bernabéu Yeste felt it was time for major changes, initiating yet another approach to the Red Star Belgrade head coach Miljanić who had simultaneously been heading the Yugoslavia national team head coaching commission while awaiting the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany.

The Serb had reportedly been on Real's radar for a few years already, consistently rejecting their prior overtures.

This time, within weeks, by March 1974, Miljanić committed to a two-year contract with Real Madrid effective summer 1974 following the World Cup, an arrangement reportedly set to see him receive US$150,000 in salary compensation (US$900,000 in 2022) over the agreed period.

Other coaches Bernabéu reportedly considered for the job at this time included Inter Milan's head coach Helenio Herrera.

The news of Yugoslavia head coaching commission leader Miljanić's signature with Real only a few months before World Cup was not received particularly well at home with certain press outlets calling for his sacking from the national team coaching commission.

He would be allowed to stay, however, and lead the national team in West Germany.

Molowny completed the ongoing league season as Real's head coach knowing he'll be gone at the end of it no matter the outcome.

In the end, he led the team to the eight spot in the league while winning the Copa del Generalísimo emphatically 4–0 against biggest rivals FC Barcelona.

Miljanić, for his part, led Yugoslavia at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, managing to make it out of the first round group before losing each of the three matches in the next round group.

On 5 July 1974, three days after ending his World Cup participation in West Germany with a loss against Sweden, Miljanić was presented as Real Madrid's new head coach.

The Serb's only condition was reportedly that he be allowed to bring along compatriot Srećko "Felix" Radišić as fitness coach.

Radišić thus became the first fitness coach in club's history.

Others in Miljanić's coaching staff were the club-assigned goalkeeping coach Juan Santisteban and assistant coach Antonio Ruiz.

Incoming Miljanić initiated a number of innovative changes in the training methods at Real.

Insisting on optimal physical and tactical preparation, he increased the number of daily training sessions from one to three—the first two (morning and noon) focusing on fitness and the late afternoon one with the ball—thus causing an outrage within the club initially.

By the year of 1992, the team was coached by Bosnian Ivica Osim, whose rule had qualified Yugoslavia to UEFA Euro 1992.

However, with his family under the siege of Sarajevo, Osim resigned on 23 May.

To replace him, the Yugoslav federation called a duo of Miljanić and Ivan Čabrinović, a Serb married with a Muslim woman.

One day later, it was announced the squad list.

Under Miljanić and Čabrinović, Yugoslavia played just one unofficial friendly against the club ACF Fiorentina, in Florence, for a minor attendance and under huge protests, on 28 May.

It was known by that day the rumor that Yugoslavia would be banned of the tournament due to Yugoslav wars, to which Miljanić, disgusted with increasingly questions about his players origins rather than their efficiency, reacted with wet eyes: "are we not welcomed? What? They do not want us anymore?".

On 31 May, with the squad already in Sweden, the ban was confirmed, just ten days before the opening match.

He is equally known as the all-powerful president of the Football Association of FR Yugoslavia (FSJ), a post he occupied for years before leaving in 2001.

His influence on the game of football in Yugoslavia is huge as an entire generation of coaches including Ćiro Blažević, Ivica Osim, Toza Veselinović, etc. came up under his tutelage.

In 2002, for his contributions to association football, Miljanić became the recipient of the FIFA Order of Merit — the highest honour awarded by FIFA.