Vujadin Boskov (1931-2014): “A penalty is when the referee blows the whistle”!
One of the most charismatic coaches in world football, Vujadin Boskov played most of his career as a footballer for Vojvodina (1946-1960), making 185 appearances and scoring 15 goals for the team, without winning any titles in the former Yugoslavia.
With Vojvodina, he managed to finish second in the Yugoslav championship in 1957 and in the Yugoslav Cup in 1951.
Boškov was capped 57 times with the Yugoslav national team between 1951-58. He was part of the team that won silver at the 1952 Olympics and was also a member of 1954 and 1958 Yugoslav World Cup teams.
In Italy he played with Sampdoria (1961-62) before leading them as a coach to the “Scudetto” title in the 1990-1991 season.
What makes him stand out from the others are the aphorisms that have remained in everyone’s memory.
Sayings:
“A penalty is when the referee whistles”
“To score at least one goal, you must shoot towards the goal”;
“We win and our opponents lose and vice versa, we lose when our opponents win”
“It’s better to lose one match 6-0 than 6 matches 1-0”
From 1964-71, Boškov was the coach and technical director of FK Vojvodina, leading them to their first Yugoslav title in 1966. The same year he was also the assistant coach of Yugoslav national team.
From 1971-73, Boškov was head coach of the Yugoslav national team, before moving abroad and coaching such clubs as FC Den Haag (1974-76, winning the Dutch Cup in 1975) and Feyenoord (1976-78) at the Dutch league, Real Zaragoza (1978-79), Real Madrid (1979-82), winning the La Liga and Copa del Rey in 1980) and Sporting Gijón (1982-84) at the Spanish league, Ascoli (1984-86, winning Serie B in 1986), Sampdoria (1986-92 and 1997-98, winning Serie A and Supercoppa Italiana in 1991, European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990 and Coppa Italia in 1988 and 1989), AS Roma (1992-93), Napoli (1994-96) and Perugia (1999) in Italian league and Servette Geneva (1996-97) in Swiss league.
Boškov finished his coaching career as head coach of the Serbia and Montenegro national football team from 1999-2000, including at the Euro 2000 tournament where they reached the quarterfinals.
Boškov later worked as a scout for Sampdoria.
Passed away on April 27, 2014
Pjerin Bj.
New York: March 8, 2025
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