Bora Milutinović

Lore & Background

Milutinović led Mexico to the quarter-finals at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, its highest finish. Mexico fell in the quarter-finals to West Germany on penalty kicks. He took over Costa Rica just before the 1990 FIFA World Cup and got Costa Rica into the second round. He coached the U.S. national team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, hosted in the United States, where the team notched its first win in the World Cup since 1950 and progressed to the knockout round for the first time since the 1930s. He coached Nigeria at the 1998 FIFA World Cup; Nigeria won its group, notching a 3–2 upset win over Spain, and reached the knockout rounds. Under his coaching, for the first time ever, the China national team qualified for the World Cup in 2002, but lost all three matches and failed to score a goal. He also managed Honduras (2003–04), Jamaica (2006–07), and Iraq (2009).

In Their Own Story

The dressing room smelled of deep heat and old leather. Outside, the Azteca Stadium hummed with ninety thousand voices, a wall of sound that pressed against the concrete walls like a living thing. Milutinović stood at the back, arms crossed, saying nothing. He didn't need to. He had told them, three days ago, that they were not Mexico versus Brazil. They were twenty-two men versus the world's expectation that they would lose. He had drawn a single line on the whiteboard—a line between 'what they want from you' and 'what you owe yourself.' He tapped the second side. 'You play for that,' he said, in his quiet, deliberate voice. The room went still. Then someone laughed, and the tension broke like a wave, and they were alive again. The whistle would sound in eleven minutes. The line on the whiteboard would be the only thing they remembered when the noise swallowed them whole.

Reader's Guide

Milutinović's managerial career at club level has seen more mixed success. His longest managerial spell for a single club was his tenure with UNAM of Mexico from 1977 to 1983. He managed Udinese of the Italian Serie B for nine matches in 1987, the MetroStars of Major League Soccer to the worst record in league history in 1999, and had a brief stint in the Qatar Stars League with Al-Sadd in the 2004–05 season.

Did You Know?

• Milutinović is the first manager to take four different national teams beyond the first round of a World Cup.
• He was nicknamed 'Miracle Worker' by Alan Rothenberg, then president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
• Milutinović comes from a footballing family; he and his two brothers Miloš and Milorad played together for Partizan.
• He is married to a Mexican and currently resides in Qatar.