Ante Šimundža
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ante Šimundža | ||
| Date of birth | 28 September 1971 | ||
| Place of birth | Maribor, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Železničar Maribor | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| –1991 | Kovinar Maribor | ||
| 1991–1996 | Maribor | 170 | (64) |
| 1997 | Sendai | ||
| 1997 | Maribor | 2 | (0) |
| 1998 | Young Boys | 7 | (0) |
| 1998 | Malmö | 3 | (0) |
| 1999–2000 | Maribor | 56 | (14) |
| 2001 | La Louvière | 12 | (5) |
| 2001–2002 | Železnik | 14 | (11) |
| 2002–2003 | Šmartno ob Paki | 27 | (9) |
| 2003–2005 | Wildon | ||
| National team | |||
| 1992 | Slovenia U21 | 1 | (0) |
| 1993–1999 | Slovenia | 3 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2011–2012 | Mura 05 | ||
| 2012 | GAK | ||
| 2013 | Mura 05 | ||
| 2013 | Aluminij | ||
| 2013–2015 | Maribor | ||
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Ante Šimundža (born 28 September 1971 in Maribor) is a Slovenian association football manager and former professional footballer. He has been a head coach of Maribor from September 2013 until August 2015.[1]
Club career
He started his career in the youth selections of Železničar Maribor and moved to Maribor after the independence of Slovenia in 1991.[2] He stayed there for six seasons scoring 64 league goals in 170 appearances.[3] He played for a number of different foreign clubs between 1997 and 1998, however, plagued by constant ankle injuries he soon returned to his home town club.[2] There he was an important part of Maribor's qualification to the UEFA Champions League during the 1999–2000 season.[2] He was the scorer of the winning goal in the first round of the group stage when Maribor defeated Dynamo Kyiv in Kiev, Ukraine.[4] In 2001 he again moved abroad and played for La Louvière and Železnik, before returning to his native country and finishing his professional career in Šmartno.[3] Šimundža has made a total of 255 Slovenian PrvaLiga appearances, scoring 87 goals in the process.[3] Considered a Maribor club legend, he is tied with Gregor Židan as a player with the most appearances for the club during the 1990s.[5]
International career
Šimundža has been capped three times for the Slovenia national football team between 1993 and 1999.[6] He has represented his nation on matches against Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece.[6]
Coaching career
Šimundža began his coaching career in 2003, when he was a coach of the youth selections at Železničar Maribor, where he started his career as a player. He started his senior coaching career in 2008, when he was appointed as an assistant coach of Darko Milanič at Maribor.[7] He was part of Maribor's sports department until 2011 when he was selected as a head coach of Mura 05.[8] His season with Mura 05 was impressive and he turned the team around, changing it from a relegation contender to the eventual UEFA competitions qualifier, as the club finished third during the 2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga season.[2] By the end of his first season as head coach, he was nominated for the best coach in the league.[9] He then accepted an offer of the one time Austrian champions, GAK, signing with the club in June 2012.[10]
Personal life
Šimundža was born in Maribor, present day Slovenia as the youngest of two children, with his sister being six years older than him.[2] His father was a Croat from Split and his mother a Slovene from Kidričevo.[2] He is married and has two sons named Luka and Jure, who got their names after their grandfathers.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ Jaka Lopatič (17 August 2015). "Šimundža dobil nogo, danes znan že novi trener" [Simundza kicked out, new coach will be known today] (in Slovenian). Siol Sportal. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tamara Pocak (28 May 2012). "Žena se zaman trudi, da bi me spravila na plesišče" (in Slovenian). Ekipa. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Ante Šimundža" (in Slovenian). Association of 1. SNL official website. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ↑ "Zapisnik: Dinamo Kijev – Maribor" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor official website. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ↑ NK Maribor (13 December 2010). "Veličastnih 50" (in Slovenian). nkmaribor.com. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- 1 2 "Ante Šimundža" (in Slovenian). Football Association of Slovenia official website. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ↑ Borut Cvetko (Photo) (5 August 2009). "Zlatko Zahovič, športni direktor NK Maribor , Ante Šimundža, pomočnik trenerja NK Maribor in Darko Milanič, trener NK Maribor" (in Slovenian). mediaspeed.net. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
- ↑ S.J. (24 August 2011). "Šimundža na klopi Mure nasledil Pevnika" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ↑ D.O. (9 May 2012). "Za igralca leta se poteguje kar 11 nogometašev Maribora" (in Slovenian). Delo. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ↑ Matej Rijavec (25 June 2010). "Mura išče novega trenerja: Šimundža skočil čez mejo" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
External links
- NZS profile (Slovene)