Nikola Jurčević

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Nikola Jurčević

Jurčević in training
Personal information
Date of birth	(1966-09-14) 14 September 1966 (age 58)
Place of birth	Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Forward, midfielder
Youth career
	Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1984–1986	Dinamo Zagreb	4	(0)
1986–1988	Zagreb
1988–1989	Royal Antwerp	1	(0)
1989–1991	Zagreb	33	(25)
1991–1995	Austria Salzburg	130	(42)
1995–1997	SC Freiburg	45	(5)
1997–1999	Austria Salzburg	31	(4)
Total		211	(51)
International career
1990–1991	Croatia (unofficial)	2	(0)
1994–1996	Croatia	17	(2)
Managerial career
2002–2003	NK Zagreb
2003–2004	Dinamo Zagreb
2005	Austria Salzburg
2005	Slaven Belupo
2006–2012	Croatia (assistant)
2012–2013	Lokomotiv Moscow (assistant)
2013–2015	Beşiktaş (assistant)
2015–2017	West Ham United (assistant)
2018	Dinamo Zagreb
2019	Azerbaijan
2023	Lebanon
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nikola Jurčević (born 14 September 1966) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player.

He made his debut for Croatia in a December 1990 friendly match against Romania, coming on as a 66th-minute substitute for Ivan Cvjetković, and earned a total of 19 caps (2 unofficial), scoring 2 goals.^{[citation needed]} Since Croatia was still officially part of Yugoslavia at the time, his first two games were unofficial.^{[citation needed]} His final international was a December 1996 friendly against Morocco.^[1]

Jurčević started as a manager of NK Zagreb in 2002,^{[citation needed]} but a year later he became the manager for Dinamo Zagreb.^{[citation needed]} He celebrated the Prva HNL and Croatian Cup in 2004.^{[citation needed]} Later, he managed NK Slaven Belupo.^{[citation needed]} He also worked as an assistant manager for the Croatia national team, assisting his former international teammates Slaven Bilić and Aljoša Asanović.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 September 2015, he was appointed as the assistant manager to Bilić at West Ham United.^[2] He left the club along with Bilić's other coaching staff when the manager was sacked on 6 November 2017.^[3] On 12 March 2018, he was named the manager of Croatian First Football League club Dinamo Zagreb,^{[citation needed]} but he was sacked by club on 15 May 2018, after poor performance in the club.^{[citation needed]}

On 11 February 2019, he was named the new head coach for the Azerbaijan national team.^[4] On 13 December 2019, he was sacked as manager of the Azerbaijan national team due to the team's poor performance in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying, despite managing a respectable 1–1 draw to his home country Croatia at home.^[5]

On 2 October 2023, Jurčević was appointed head coach of the Lebanon national team ahead of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup and 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.^[6] However, just two months into the role, Jurčević left the Lebanon national team just a month before the tournament began, by “mutual consent”.^[7]

Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Jurčević goal.

List of international goals scored by Nikola Jurčević^[8]

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 August 1994	Ramat Gan, Ramat Gan, Israel	Israel	3 – 0	4 – 0	Friendly
2	15 November 1995	Bežigrad, Ljubljana, Slovenia	Slovenia	2 – 1	2 – 1	Euro 1996 Qualifying

As of match played 21 November 2023^[9]

NK Zagreb

• Yugoslav Third League (West): 1989–90
• Yugoslav Second League: 1990–91

Austria Salzburg

• Austrian Bundesliga: 1993–94, 1994–95
• UEFA Cup Runner-up: 1993–94

Individual

• Austrian Bundesliga top scorer: 1993–94

Dinamo Zagreb

• Croatian Super Cup: 2003
• Croatian Cup: 2004^[10]

• Nikola Jurčević – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Nikola Jurčević at National-Football-Teams.com
• Nikola Jurčević at the Croatian Football Federation