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Of surprise meetings with old colleague
Current India head coach Igor Stimac and NorthEast Untied FC coach Robert Jarni go back a long way. They were Croatia teammates during 1998 World Cup.
They own houses 200m apart but it was some coincidence that Robert Jarni and Igor Stimac would run into each other at a hotel in Guwahati on Tuesday and renew a relationship that stretches back to 1986 when they were teammates at Hadjuk Split. One year later, they would win the Fifa World Youth Championship in Chile.
“I certainly didn’t expect to meet him here,” says Jarni, 50, moving those big arms to convey incredulity at the possibility of two Croats, defenders and teammates on that memorable journey to a third place finish in the 1998 World Cup, reminiscing over dinner in north-east India.
Jarni joined as coach of NorthEast United FC (NEUFC) in the Indian Super League last month. He replaced Eelco Schattorie who took NEUFC to their first semi-finals in 2018-19.
“When we finished our football careers, Igor and I took different paths as coaches. Even as players, we went to different clubs after the initial days at Hadjuk Split. But all of us who played together for Croatia bond well. We meet over dinner with our families regularly,” says Jarni speaking through the club’s strength and conditioning coach Jose Carlos who translated from Spanish.
Stimac, Jarni says, is a leader, on and off the pitch. “That is why I believe he can do great things with India. But to make a team grow, he will need time.”
He and Stimac, the India head coach, also enjoy tennis, says Jarni, but “we are yet to play each other.”
Split, the city in Croatia they live in, is also where Goran Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon men’s singles champion, was born.
Jarni moved to NEUFC after being in charge of Croatia’s under-19 and under-20 teams for two years. “I love coaching under-19s and under-20s but I want the whole season with them. That is not possible with the national team because boys assemble three days prior to a game,” he says.
Before taking up his first coaching assignment outside Europe and second away from Croatia, Jarni spoke to Stimac. “He made it easier to make up my mind,” says the former left back and left winger who won the Serie A with Juventus in 1994-95.
“That was my most special moment in my club career. We had a very strong team and a clever coach,” says Jarni. The Bianconeri squad that season had Antonio Conte, Didier Deschamps, Alessandro del Piero and Juergen Kohler and was led by Roberto Baggio. Marcelo Lippi was the coach.
But it was after moving to Spain that Jarni, who played the 1990 World Cup for Yugoslavia and turned out for Croatia in 1998 and 2002, says he played his best football. “Without doubt, my best club season would be my second season at Real Betis when I scored 11 goals and made 17 assists,” he says.
It was at Betis that Jarni, who played 81 games for Croatia, met Luis Aragones, their coach in 1997-98. “I have learnt a lot from him and Lippi,” he says.
After a historic World Cup campaign, of which Jarni played every minute of Croatia’s seven games and scored his only international goal in the 3-0 rout of Germany, Real Madrid called. Jarni joined amid rumours of being routed through Coventry City, where he spent less than a week in the off-season, because Betis didn’t want to sell to Madrid but made only 27 appearances.
“I spent one-and-a-half years at Real Madrid and though my performance wasn’t the same level as at Real Betis, it was an unforgettable experience. It is for anyone who has been part of that club,” says Jarni.
