Storm century coach Ivan Ivica Osim died

He shaped football around the turn of the millennium with modesty and intellect. Ivan "Ivica" Osim was one of the most successful coaches who ever worked in Austria and yet more than that - his philosophical approach to the most popular sport in the world and the constant struggle for peace in his homeland brought him the call of a football wise, who looked far outside the box. Osim died on May 1st at the age of 80.

• stroke at the age of 66
• regretted commercialization of football
• Technical-fitted footballer
• "If Osim doesn't play, I don't play either."

stroke at the age of 66

Sturm Graz opened the sad "Strauß of Zeljo" new worlds. The Bosnian donated the first championship title (1998), whose successful defense (1999), three cup victories (1996, 1997, 1999) and three lavish participations in the Champions League (1998, 1999, 2000).

As Osim always emphasized, Graz has become "second home" for him. Sturm's century coach had hardly left his house in the St. Peter district for a long time. From a stroke at the age of 66 - when looking at football in front of the television - his body has never completely recovered. But until a few days ago, Osim went well with the circumstances, "his" beloved Achterl Styrian Muscateller drank until his death after signing fan utensils.

Accordingly, the mourning report came as a surprise - also for the black and white entourage, which despite the rain was pilgrimed onto the Schöckl Graz Hausberg to celebrate Sturm's birthday and the status as runner -up. Then Club President Christian Jauk reported Osim's death with tears in his eyes. "When we mourn together, it makes things easier." The greatest of Sturm went. "He was a personality, not only in football and in sports, but far beyond. The storm family mourns together and honor it properly."

regretted commercialization of football

The fact that Osim Just died on May 1st, the founding date of his heart club, will be another black and white anecdote. He gave the grazers countless bon mots, including the most beautiful for many fans: "Storm covers everything black in my life, everything that knows is too."

The horizon of the studied mathematician and philosophers was always wide and yet concentrated on an average 105 meter long and 68 meter wide rectangle. Every day without football is a lost day, Osim once said, and after that he lived. He also looked at football matches on two TV screens, even though he deeply regretted the progressive commercialization. "Today's football is FIFA and Real Madrid. Everything is about money. Too bad."

Success always meant more than the number of trophies in the closet. "Only brave teams write history. There is always the opportunity to have a little more self -confidence than try the opponent and something." Guided by the offensive apostle, Sturm shone with courageous combination football, the showpiece of the team was the "magical triangle" with Ivica Vastic, Mario Haas and Hannes Reinmayr, which received all freedom from Osim and this in the late 1990s with spectacular Thank you on the ongoing volume.

Technical-fitted footballer

The master of the understatement, even in supposedly large moments of happiness, came from a mischievous grin at best. It was mostly over with this as soon as Hannes Kartnig approached to break down his coach. With the then club president Osim, a kind of hate love, a stormy relationship with many ups and downs, which finally broke in 2002: Kartnig's public criticism always caused Osim to give up the coaching office after eight years-a lawsuit followed Mobbings, Osim was finally awarded 173,822 euros. He donated the money for charitable purposes.

From 2002 to 2006, Osim continued his coaching career at the Japanese club Jef United. There he also met an unsuccessful troop that he made a cup winner. The Asians all too much trusted the scholar in 2006 the team boss post, but shortly afterwards the stroke suffered him. Despite everything, Osim should once again prove a valuable service. As the head of a "normalization committee", Osim achieved the international lock of the Bosnian association in 2011, and three years later the country took part in the World Cup.

Thanks to his football skills, Osim had made a name for himself early. He shone as a technically foggy football at Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, the railway club, and became Yugoslav team player before the move to France took place. Due to his virtuoso playing style, his dancing style, he was given the nickname "Strauss von Zeljo".

"If Osim doesn't play, I don't play either."

The following anecdote shows how good Osim was: When FC Santos made a guest appearance in Sarajevo in 1969 to play against a city selection there, Osim was injured. When Pele got wind of it, he is said to have said: "If Osim doesn't play, I don't play either." Osim was injected with fit and got a 1-1 peles jersey. Not he, but Brazil's football king, is said to have asked Osim with number 10 about the jersey exchange.

Osim grew up in an atheistic family of workers in Sarajevo and married a Muslim with whom he got three children. But the multicultural idyll in the 1984 Olympic City became more and more brittle. When the former Yugoslavia sank in the civil war, Osim was the team boss of the national team, who was then peppered with outstanding footballs. The country would have driven to the European Championship in 1992, but was excluded due to the turmoil of war.

On May 23, 1992, when bombs fell on his beloved birthplace during the encirclement, Osim undertook a deeply sad protest. He resigned as team boss at a press conference in Belgrade. "This is the only thing I can do for the city so that you also remember that I was born in Sarajevo. And you know what is happening there." The trauma of war was supposed to follow Osim all his life, he never understood nationalism. "I lost my smile back then," he confessed years later. The love for football remained.