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Bacina not returning to Rams
Sazali Abdul Aziz
info@sleague.com
One of the more memorable sights of pre-season in January 2009 was a Caucasian man in a green checkered shirt, three-quarter pants and flip-flops, with a bag slung across his side and a clipboard pressed to his chest.
That man was Nenad Bacina, looking every inch the novice head coach as he watched his Woodlands Wellington team negotiate a friendly match. Despite holding a UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence, Bacina has only coached at a youth academy in his native Croatia, and worked in an advisory role “discussing tactics” at Malaysian club PDRM FA.
“That was just for four months,” he explained. “It was a bit funny because I was out there working with the coach in training, but during matches I would sit up in the stands with the boss.”
His stint with Woodlands in this year’s S.League, therefore, is his first major coaching appointment.
Bacina, of course, is no stranger to Singapore football. He helped SAFFC to two titles between 2000 and 2004, in a team which included compatriots Mirko Grabovac and Veselko Paponja, and also skippered the team along the way.
On Friday night, Bacina led Woodlands out on the pitch for their last game of the season, which saw them finish in a respectable ninth-place finish. The feat though, was not enough for him to keep his job.
“The club made the decision before I could,” he said.
“A few weeks ago, the club had offered me one extra year as a coach. Unfortunately, before I could make a decision, they got back to me and told me that they were facing another financial problem next year, and they cannot offer me what they originally did.”
Woodlands’ withdrawal of the 38-year-old’s contract extension highlights the financial constraints of the club, which this year had also forced them to put together a team of “reserves and unwanted players”, as one club official puts it.
These players, however, have given a good account of themselves this season, scalping the likes of Home United, Tampines Rovers and champions SAFFC along the way.
The Rams though, are finding it difficult to compete financially, and another season of rebuilding looms.
Bacina is not alone in having to leave the club in the off season. Even most of the players, he said, are looking for new clubs.
He said that four of his players were being eyed by the top two clubs – “Two by Tampines, and two by SAFFC” – and that a few others have also been offered contracts by clubs like Balestier Khalsa and Geylang United “with higher salaries”.
The pair going east to join the Stags are believed to be wingers Ismadi Mukhtar and Jamil Ali, while the other two joining SAFFC are believed to be leftback Syaiful Iskandar and veteran goalkeeper Rezal Hassan in a player-goalkeeper coach role.
Despite being a disappointed that he did not have a chance to carry on his work with Woodlands, Bacina says he is happy the players are moving “because it is a sign that the players, coach and club have done well.”
“When I came in, I tried to turn the mindset of the players upside down,” he said, “to prove to them that they are capable of playing at a higher level. This is not to say Woodlands is not a good team, but look at the situation now – teams like SAFFC want the players.”
His own situation though is less clear. He has received no concrete coaching offers from any club either in Singapore or abroad, contrary to some media reports. The only thing he has done is “send his CV to an agent in Indonesia”, but no club there has responded.
On Friday, he said that he “might coach in America”, although he said that was far from being a certainty. He then took out a piece of paper – his flight confirmation – and said that he would be returning to Croatia in one week’s time.
“Of course I would stay in Singapore if I had the chance, I’m planning to stay here,” he said. “I have heard some rumours connected to my name, but they’re just rumours. Unless somebody calls me during the week and says ‘We really want you to stay and coach our club’, I will have to go back for now.”
One thing Bacina can look forward to in Croatia is seeing his wife and 11-year-old son, who is playing for his beloved Hajduk Split – “all of us who are born in Dalmacija, our hearts are fighting for Hajduk” – in their youth-team.
Bacina himself played at Hajduk, joining them as an 8-year-old but got released at 14. He then played at NK Primorac 1929 for twelve years, where he met Grabovac, and had stints at NK Mladost 127 and NK Belišće before coming to Singapore in 2000.
After leaving the Warriors, he played in the Croatian 3rd division for six months before finally hanging up his boots.
Having led his rag-tag Woodlands team to a comfortable finish away from the bottom of the league, some fans are rankled that Bacina’s name was not listed as one of the nominees for the S.League Coach of the Year, released recently.
The Croat though smiled sheepishly, saying: “As a player, I was given so many sweet words. ‘Well done’, ‘good play’, a pat on the back, but I was never given an award like Player of the Year.”
He then took out an old newspaper cutting from an Indonesian broadsheet which he had found earlier in the day. The article was a report of an Asean Club Championship match between SAFFC and Persebaya Surabaya in 2003, and Bacina pointed to a paragraph which he wanted me to translate.
It read: “SAFFC captain Nenad Bacina, awarded the player of the tournament, scored with a header.”
He simply smiled and shrugged. “I’m used to it (not getting the major awards) from my playing days. Maybe, it is because I am just starting out (in coaching). Maybe my time hasn’t come yet.”
It is still very early days in his coaching career, but what is certain is that Bacina’s time as Woodlands coach has come to an end.
Despite his departure from the Rams, Bacina remains grateful to the club and the management for giving him his first crack at being a head coach.
“I would like to thank Woodlands Wellington and the management, especially my former teammate Jeykanth (Jeyapal, Woodlands team manager), Hatta (Ali, assistant coach) and Wan the kitman.
“The fans have also been very supportive, and I hope they keep up this level support for the club regardless of who the coach or the players are.” |
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