Vladislav Bogićević

Vladislav Bogićević (Serbian Cyrillic: "Владислав Богићевић") (born November 7, 1950 in Belgrade, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian former football (soccer) player. He is a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Playing

Bogićević's playing career included 13 seasons with Red Star Belgrade where he was part of five Yugoslav league winning teams. All throughout his time at Red Star he was known by nickname Bleki.

On the international scene, Bogićević appeared in 23 games for Yugoslavia, which included representing his country at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

With his confident play for Red Star and national team, Bogićević gathered plenty of interest from top European sides. Among others, Bayern Munich wanted him as replacement for recently departed Franz Beckenbauer in the summer of 1977. However, strict sporting rules of communist Yugoslavia stating that no player could move abroad until the start of calendar year in which he turns 28 prevented the transfer from taking place.

In the spring of 1978, technically still at the age of 27, he joined the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. In time, players, fans, and those in the media would nickname him Bogie. In 203 regular season games, Bogićević scored 31 goals and 147 assists. He appeared in additional 33 playoff games scoring 8 goals and 19 assists.

"Bogie" was named to either the first or second team all-star team in each of his seven NASL seasons (second team in 1978 and 1979, and first team in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984). He was also on three NASL championship winning teams. He was the league assist leader in 1981, 1982, and 1983 - many of Cosmos' striker Giorgio Chinaglia's goals came from assists by Bogićević.

Bogićević was inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame on October 14, 2002.

After football

Since retirement from football, Bogicevic tried his hand at many different things. He was hired by CONCACAF to promote soccer throughout the United States. He later opened an Italian restaurant and entered real estate business for a while.

Coaching

In 1994, Bogićević began to take an interest in coaching and has since then had various low-key head coaching stints.

In July 1995, he took over the coaching reins of, now defunct, A-League's New York Centaurs after coach Len Roitman stepped down in the middle of the season. The team finished last in their division.

After taking part in national team scouting sessions during World Cup 1998, he signed a two-year contract with Yugoslav FA in August 2000. When Ilija Petković took the head coaching role for the first time, Bogićević became his assistant. Petković resigned in early 2001, but Bogićević stayed on.

In December 2001 when Yugoslav/Serbo-Montenegrin FA was looking for a single national team coach to replace the 3-man coaching commission, Bogićević expressed strong interest in the position and was interviewed. Then YFA president Dragan Stojković publicly said Bogićević had a disadvantage compared to the other candidates due to his limited head coaching experience and a lack of bench results. [http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2001/12/24/srpski/S01122302.shtml] However, that statement seemed almost ridiculous just several days later when Dejan Savićević, a man with zero head coaching experience, got the job.

When his contract with the FA expired in the summer of 2002, Bogićević, who by this time was in a role of observer, did not wish to renew it and left the national team.

His most recent coching stint was with Portuguese First division side Belenenses during 2003/2004 season. He got sacked in January 2004 after less than two months (52 days) in charge.

External links

* [http://www.soccerhall.org/famers/vlad_bogecivic.htm Bogicevic's page at the US National Soccer Hall of Fame]
*", June 28, 2002