Ivica Osim

Ivan "Ivica" Osim (born 6 May 1941) is a Bosnian former football player and manager. He was most recently head coach of Japan, before he suffered a stroke in November 2007 and left the post. On 18 April 2011 FIFA announced that Osim will head an interim committee to run the Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country was suspended from all international competitions.

As a player, he was a member of the Yugoslavia national team and played in the 1964 Olympics. As assistant manager, he won a bronze medal with Yugoslavia at the 1984 Olympics, and reached the quarterfinals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup as the manager of Yugoslavia.

Life and family

Born during World War II in Sarajevo, precisely one month after the Nazi German invasion of Yugoslavia, to Slovene-German father Mihail "Puba" Osim who worked as machinist at the railways and Polish-Czech mother Karolina, baby Ivica's infant years were spent in difficult circumstances.

Following the end of war, he started playing football in the FK Željezničar Sarajevo's youth system. He graduated from the University of Sarajevo.