In 2019-20, Dejan Stankovic won the Serbian league
title with Red Star Belgrade, the club where he grew up.Now he wants more...
“It doesn’t matter
what I said
yesterday, but
what I’ll say
tomorrow”
DEJAN STANKOVIC
It is over a year since you
were appointed as head
coach of Red Star. How would
you summarise that period?
Yes, it’s been a year since I returned home. I
am proud of my lads who did big things with
me and with my coaching staff. We won the
league title and we qualified for the Europa
League group stage. We crowned all that with a
European spring [playing in the Europa League
knock-out stage], and we are on our way to
winning another league title. It’s early to talk
about it, but I’m very proud of my coaching
period in my club.
Five years ago, after a spell as Udinese’s
assistant, you said that coaching is not for
you. What made you change your mind?
It doesn’t matter what I said yesterday. What
matters is what I will say tomorrow. I did have
motives for why I stayed away from the
coaching job. I am very attached to my family [a
wife and three sons] and in this job you have to
be on duty 24 hours. Often you don’t know in
which country or place you are. Everything has
its risks, obligations and sacrifices. Back then I
was convincing myself not to become a coach,
but this was waiting for me behind the corner.Red Star’s general director Zvezdan Terzic
said that in your telephone interview he
was so impressed with your 20-minute
monologue that he decided to give you the
job. Can you reveal what you told him?
It’s a nice story. I just came back from Shanghai
and I had jet-lag. I was delighted that the
director called me. Then you take a breath and
the whole love towards Red Star comes out ofyou. How you see the team, its shape and you
feel the trust. He recognized in me a crazy
energy and enormous support for Red Star. He
recognized the love and the ideas. I was also
well-informed about the quality of the team,
because I was here for the Champions League
matches against Bayern and Tottenham.Given that you spent most of your career
in Italy, there was an assumption that you
would play defensive football. But Red
Star generally play attacking football and
score lots of goals, with some exceptions
in the Europa League. What is your
philosophy?
My aim is to always play to score a goal more
than the opponent. I think that this is exactly
the purpose of football. I’m very glad that this
season Red Star play more offensively and