Singapore Premier League side Lion City Sailors have named former Ceres-Negros, Borneo FC, and Melaka United head coach Risto Vidakovic as their new boss for the upcoming 2023 season.
53-year old Vidakovic famously guided Ceres – now United City FC – to the AFC Cup inter-zone semifinals in 2017, before infamously leaving Borneo in January of this year following “COVID concerns” only to be appointed as Melaka’s new head coach days after his departure from the Pesut Etam.
Vidakovic’s time at Melaka were very torrid as he only won one of his five games there, leading to his sacking after less than four months there.
“Risto is a serial winner in the region and has proven that he can work European knowhow into the football culture in Southeast Asia – and this in varying challenging circumstances as well,” said LCS chairman Forrest Li, as quoted from The Strait Times, “I’m confident he is the right man to take the club forward.”
LCS were involved in the 2022 Singapore Premier League title race, up until the sudden resignation of head coach Kim Do-hoon due to a brawl that he had with Tampines Rovers assistant coach Fahrudin Mustafic in July.
Interim head coach Luka Lalic guided LCS to three huge victories – a 10-1 demolition of Young Lions, a 7-0 thrashing of Tanjong Pagar United, and a thrilling 9-4 win over Hougang United – however fatigue and injuries from Lalic’s intense training regime began to set in and LCS lost their last four games in a row, conceding their Singapore Premier League title to Albirex Niigata (S) in the process. The Sailors then suffered the ignominy of being knocked out of the 2022 Singapore Cup in the group stages.
LCS were then dealt with a further blow after club owners Sea Limited suffered a plunge in their valuation amounting to a staggering US$150 billion, meaning that cost-cutting measures had to be done. The experienced quartet of Hassan Sunny, Gabriel Quak, Faris Ramli and Shahdan Sulaiman has been allowed to leave the club, while a number of backroom staffs saw their contracts being terminated, with similar lay-offs being done at Sea Limited’s e-commerce arm Shopee.