Ilija Lončarević

Ilija Lončarević (born 8 October 1944) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Croatian Second Football League club Kustošija.

Ilija Lončarević
Personal information
Full name Ilija Lončarević
Date of birth (1944-10-08) 8 October 1944
Place of birth Čajkovci,
Independent State of Croatia
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1963–1964 Lokomotiva
1967–1969 NK Prvomajska
Managerial career
1971 NK Prvomajska
1987–1988 NK Zagreb
1990–1993 Inker Zaprešić
1994 Marsonia
1994–1995 NK Zagreb
1995–1996 Slaven Belupo
1997 Orijent
1997–1998 Hrvatski Dragovoljac
1999 Croatia Zagreb
2000 Marsonia
2000–2001 Čakovec
2001–2002 Dinamo Zagreb
2003–2004 Libya
2004–2005 Dinamo Zagreb
2005–2006 Libya
2006–2008 Osijek
2009 Lokomotiva
2009 KF Tirana
2010–2012 Inter Zaprešić
2013–2014 Gorica
2014–2015 Croatia (youth)
2015–2016 Marsonia
2018 HAŠK
2019–2020 HAŠK
2021 Inter Zaprešić
2022 Kustošija
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Managerial career

Lončarević led Inker Zaprešić to the Croatian Cup title in 1992, but his arguably biggest success in management came when he won the Croatian League with Croatia Zagreb in 1999. In the 1990s, Lončarević was also in charge of several other Croatian teams including NK Zagreb, Marsonia, Slaven Belupo and Hrvatski Dragovoljac.

In the summer of 2000, after a short spell with Marsonia, Lončarević was appointed head coach at Čakovec, who just won their first promotion to the Croatian first division at the time, and led the club through the first part of the 2000–01 season. Under his management, Čakovec surprisingly came in position to fight for the fifth place in the Croatian league for some time during the autumn of 2000; they finished the season in 8th place. Lončarević left Čakovec in the winter break of the 2000–01 season and returned to Dinamo Zagreb for the 2001–02 season.

In 2003, Lončarević was appointed head coach of the Libya national football team and led the team through their qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup. He was surprisingly sacked from the post in July 2004, although the team only lost one qualifying match until that time. After this first spell with the Libya national team, Lončarević went on to take charge of Dinamo Zagreb in November 2004 and stayed there until the end of the season. In April 2005, however, Lončarević was appointed head coach of the Libya national team for a second time, after their previous coach, Mohamed El Khemisy, resigned from the post following a 4–1 defeat to Egypt in the World Cup qualifiers.

Lončarević then led the Libyan team through their remaining four World Cup qualifiers, but did not have much of success as the team managed two goalless draws and suffered two 1–0 defeats. Libya finished fourth in their group, 10 points behind the group winners Ivory Coast. Despite the unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign, Lončarević remained in charge of the Libyan team for the 2006 African Cup of Nations. However, after Libya lost to Egypt and Ivory Coast in their first two group matches at the tournament, chairman of the Libyan Football Federation, Gamal Al Gaafari, announced that the coach will be relieved of his duties after the last group match against Morocco, which ended in a goalless draw.[1]

Since November 2006, Lončarević had been in charge of Croatian first division team Osijek. The team finished sixth in the league during his first season there and in May 2007 he signed a contract to end with the finish of the 2008–09.[2] In his second season with Osijek, in 2007–08, the team finished third in the league and qualified for the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

In summer 2009 Lončarević was put on charge of KF Tirana champions of Albanian Superliga. However, on 6 October 2009, barely 5 weeks after the start of the Albanian Superliga, Lončarević gave his resignations[3] without citing any reasons why he did that.

On 8 March 2021, he was appointed head coach again at Inter Zaprešić, today a Croatian second division team.[4] He resigned at Kustošija in October 2022.[5]

Managerial statistics
As of 3 December 2017[6]
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
NK Zagreb 1987 1988
Inker Zaprešić July 1990 November 1992 82 40 21 21 048.78
Marsonia 1994 1994
NK Zagreb July 1994 November 1995 47 19 19 9 040.43
Slaven Belupo 1995 1996
Orijent 1919 March 1997 June 1997 13 3 4 6 023.08
Hrvatski Dragovoljac July 1997 November 1998 49 19 14 16 038.78
Croatia Zagreb April 1999 June 1999 8 4 3 1 050.00
Marsonia 2000 2000
Čakovec July 2000 December 2000 20 6 7 7 030.00
Dinamo Zagreb April 2001 April 2002 50 31 8 11 062.00
Libya September 2003 May 2004 10 6 4 0 060.00
Dinamo Zagreb November 2004 March 2005 11 4 2 5 036.36
Libya May 2005 Jan 2006 13 1 4 8 007.69
Osijek November 2006 September 2008 62 27 12 23 043.55
Lokomotiva January 2009 March 2009
KF Tirana June 2009 October 2009 1 1 0 0 100.00
Inter Zaprešić April 2010 April 2012 66 25 11 30 037.88
Gorica April 2013 November 2014
Inter Zaprešić March 2021 Present

Honours

Inter Zaprešić

Marsonia

Slaven Belupo

Dinamo Zagreb

Tirana

References
  1. "Libya sacks national football coach", 25 January 2006
  2. "Lončareviću ugovor, Šoliću poziv BiH", Jutarnji list, 15 May 2007 (in Croatian)
  3. "Astrologjia".
  4. "Ilija Lončarević novi trener Intera". NK Inter Zaprešić. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  5. Ilija Lončarević SMS porukom dao otkaz u Kustošiji - Index (in Croatian)
  6. "Ilija Lončarević". hrnogomet.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
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