In Slovenia, the summit meeting between league leaders Celje and record champions Maribor is coming up—but the duel is being overshadowed by almost unbelievable events surrounding coach Radomir Djalovic.
During training on Wednesday, a heated altercation broke out between Omar Rekik and Benjamin Tetteh. Coach Radomir Djalovic tried to calm the hotheads down, stepped in between them and ended up getting punched himself, according to unanimous reports in the Slovenian media on Thursday. However, it was unclear how the situation would unfold.
The reports came thick and fast: On the one hand, it was said that the 42-year-old, who also played 29 Bundesliga games (3 goals) for Arminia Bielefeld between 2004 and 2006, wanted to throw in the towel because he felt his authority had been undermined and had asked the club bosses to terminate his contract immediately after the incident. Other reports said that the players had apologized to the coach. What exactly happened after the brawl is not really known.
However, the fact is that Djalovic did not lead training on Thursday; Radovan Karanovic took over. The usually well-informed and reputable public broadcaster RTV SLO reported that the coach had decided to leave the club.
In the evening, the club confirmed the separation and also that assistant coaches Igor Cagalj, Davor Landeka, Vito Tercolo, and Antonio Pavlinovic had left the club. Maribor also commented on the brawl, attributing it to “emotions and increased tension” — and also noted that this was not the first time something like this had happened in soccer.
“During intense training on a wet pitch, even a hard tackle can lead to an argument, as happened in our case,” the club said, referring to Wednesday’s events. The club also confirmed that the coach had been struck and that the two players had already apologized for their “inappropriate reaction.”
Discussions were then held with the coaching staff and “taking all circumstances into account, the decision was made to end the relationship.”
Hot seat in Maribor
“Maribor has changed coaches a lot lately? I had that in the back of my mind, I didn’t ignore it,” Djalovic said in early September immediately after being hired as the new coach of the Slovenian record champions, emphasizing that he was “not afraid” of the task.
A little more than two weeks and one brawl later, the Montenegrin has now packed his bags after all—and Maribor is facing chaos, as this is already the second head coach to leave this season.
The Slovenians had actually pinned their hopes on Tugberk Tanrivermis, who was signed at the start of the season but then dismissed after 49 days. The reason: Maribor was not performing well on the pitch and, despite having what was supposedly the strongest squad in the league, was already seven points behind leaders Celje after five matchdays.
Karanovic then led the team on an interim basis for two games before Djalovic took over. The Montenegrin, who won the double in Croatia with HNK Rijeka last season, was dismissed at the start of the season after a weak start and failure to qualify for the European Cup, but got off to a good start in Slovenia, celebrating three wins in three games—including a 13-0 cup win against lower-league NK Jurovski Dol, the highest victory in the club’s history.
So now he’s gone again, and 56-year-old Karanovic has to step into the breach once more—and prove himself on Saturday (8:15 p.m.) in the top match in Celje, which already has an eight-point lead.
