{"id":3170,"date":"2017-04-29T17:35:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-29T08:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2017-04-29T17:35:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T08:35:17","slug":"7-facts-new-thailand-boss-milovan-rajevac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2017\/04\/29\/7-facts-new-thailand-boss-milovan-rajevac\/","title":{"rendered":"7 facts about new Thailand boss Milovan Rajevac"},"content":{"rendered":"

From being a very, very stern manager to calling Luis Suarez “a trivial cheat”, what else is there to know about new Thailand national team head coach\u00a0Milovan Rajevac? Football Tribe Asia takes a look at the 7 facts about the Serbian manager.<\/p>\n

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1. A reputation of being steely<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year was 2009 and Rajevac was the head coach of Ghana. The three stars of the national team,\u00a0Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari purposefully missed an international friendly against Angola.<\/p>\n

Rajevac did not back down and fined each of the players $3,000. Muntari, who was playing for Inter Milan at that time, failed to pay the fine in time and snubbed a meeting with the Serbian coach. As a result, his name was crossed off the roster for the 2010\u00a0African Cup of Nation.<\/p>\n

Leaving out Muntari was considered a bold move, but Rajevac had other ideas. He relied on Ghana U-20’s youngsters who won the U-20 championship and built a squad around future core players such as Andre Ayew or Kwadwo Asamoah. Ghana went all the way to the final, only to lose against Egypt.<\/p>\n

A change in attitude before the 2010 World Cup saw Muntari issue an apology to Rajevac. The centre-midfielder was later called up and made three appearances, scoring one goal.<\/p>\n

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2. Some love him, others can’t stand him<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milovan Rajevac was sacked by Algeria national team just over three months after he took charge.<\/p>\n

The Serbian only lasted two matches with the African side, as his tactics and temperament were criticized by the players.<\/p>\n

The Serbian took the reins of the 1990 African champions in June 2016, beating Lesotho 6-0 and drawing 1-1 with Cameroon in the 2018 World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n

According to Algerian papers, Rajevac was fired because the players lost faith in him and refused to work with the head coach. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3. Sacked after losing to Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2011, Qatar fired Milovan Rajevac after only four months in charge of the national side.<\/p>\n

The unexpected move came after Qatar were beaten 2-1 by Vietnam in the second leg of their 2014 World Cup qualifier in July 2011.<\/p>\n

The defeat against the then-ranked 144th in the world team surely didn’t satisfy the Qatar FA. Let’s hope history does not repeat itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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4. Called Luis Suarez “a cheat”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milovan Rajevac showed extreme discontent after Uruguayan striker Luiz Suarez stopped a goalbound shot with his hand on the line in the last minute of extra time in their 2010 World Cup quarter-final.<\/p>\n

“Some say that Suarez is a hero and now he’s walking proudly,” Rajevac told Bulgarian sports daily Meridian Match\u00a0<\/em>a week after the match.<\/p>\n

“Come to your senses, people. He’s not a hero, he’s a trivial cheat. What hand of God? It was the hand of the devil,” he said.<\/p>\n

Suarez’s “Hand of God” denied Ghana the prize of becoming the first African team to reach the last four of a World Cup.<\/p>\n

“I think we could’ve gone all the way to the final and spring a big surprise – an African world champion.”<\/p>\n

“But everything has crumbled after Gyan’s miss and in fact, we’ve lost a match that we should’ve won and it’s really painful,” he said.<\/p>\n

5. Rejected a\u00a0V.League club<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milovan Rajevac was heavily linked to Vietnamese outfit FLC Thanh Hoa in the summer of 2016, but in the end, the club chose to appoint 1991 European Cup winner\u00a0Ljupko Petrovi\u0107 instead.<\/p>\n

According to Goal Vietnam<\/em>, Rajevac demanded large backroom staffs as well as upgrades to the stadium and training ground.<\/p>\n

Thanh Hoa could not afford these demands and negotiations between the two parties broke down.<\/p>\n

6. Was called “greedy” by Ghanaian press<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Rajevac was sacked by Qatar, Ghana Soccernet<\/em> ran an article mocking the Serbian and called him “greedy” for leaving the Ghana national team for a big-money offer.<\/p>\n

The newspaper claimed that Rajevac promised to sign a four-year contract but then changed his mind to sign with oil-rich Saudi club Al-Ahli.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

7. Will earn the\u00a0same wage as Kiatisuk<\/strong><\/p>\n

After being appointed Thailand head coach, it is reported that Rajevac will earn a reported US$58,000 per month.<\/p>\n

It is believed to be the same amount paid to Kiatisuk Senamuang, who quit the national team after three years in charge last month.<\/p>\n

Rajevac’s first assignment will be the resumption of 2018 AFC World Cup qualifying in June. The Thais will play the\u00a0United Arab Emirates in Bangkok on 13 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From being a very, very stern manager to calling Luis Suarez “a trivial cheat”, what else is there to know about new Thailand national team head coach\u00a0Milovan Rajevac? Football Tribe Asia takes a look at the 7 facts about the Serbian manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":3171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,38],"tags":[684,95,587],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-southeast-asia","category-thailand","tag-milovan-rajevac","tag-slider","tag-thailand-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}