A legendary defender and one of the pillars of Croatia’s first golden generation of footballers. A pop artist, an entrepreneur and a connoisseur and producer of fine wine. Signatory to a homophobic petition, and a self-proclaimed, chest-thumping patriot whose ideologies have been shaped by the Balkan war. And a coach who has raised hopes of Indian football tragics of guiding the national team to the promised land.
In a life peppered with colourful, at times controversial, nuggets, Igor Stimac has divided opinions like few others. He continues to do so even now.
On the day The Indian Express reported that Stimac relied on the advice of an astrologer to pick his playing 11 and shared confidential information with him when the national team was enduring one of their toughest phases in May-June 2022, former India internationals Gouramangi Singh and Steven Dias raised eyebrows, saying his actions could lead – among other things – to integrity issues.
A few others pointed at the recent upswing. Indeed, it is also true that Stimac is among the men responsible for the team enjoying one of its finest years – India have lost just one match in regulation time in 2023 and climbed into the top 100 of world football.
In a recent interview with The Indian Express, Stimac said he was ‘destined’ to be in India. “I don’t have any doubt about that. I am the chosen one,” he said, grinning. “I came to India to help you. I adjusted myself to India, to Indian culture, to Indian habits, to Indian differences, you know, and some of the people are saying, ‘Coach you are more Indian than many Indians’. That’s how I feel at the moment.”
Stimac is a man who laughs easily and wears emotions on his sleeve. It is also typical of him to appeal to the feeling of nationalism. It’s a ‘habit’ that he attributes to finding his place in the world in the middle of a war – the Balkan conflict.
Stimac carved out the reputation of being a ‘macho patriot’ when he became the coach of the Croatian team a decade ago, where according to the country’s football experts, he ‘appealed on patriotism to galvanise his players.’
“That was a special time in a way that we started representing such a young country when the war was going on,” Stimac said. “In our country, when the boys of our age or younger were dying on the first line and defending the country borders, we were representing the country abroad and trying to make the people who were suffering happy.”
Indeed, they spread joy. Stimac, along with legendary players like Slaven Bilic, Zvonimir Boban and Davor Sukur, was a part of a defiant Croatian side that enthralled the world with their skills and football IQ to reach the last four of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
The infectious smiles on the faces of those players belied the pressure they were under. “That responsibility was enormous, believe me. We couldn’t fail. That kind of awareness and passion takes you to another level of commitment on the football pitch and that’s one point I want to get to with India,” Stimac added.
Stimac carved out the reputation of being a ‘macho patriot’ when he became the coach of the Croatian team a decade ago, where according to the country’s football experts, he ‘appealed on patriotism to galvanise his players.’
In the four years he’s spent in India, Stimac has not shied away from displaying this. Months into his tenure, he declared the rise of ‘New India’ after a late goal against Bangladesh helped the team avoid an embarrassing defeat at home.
Recently, he got so charged up in a match against Pakistan that the referee showed him a red card. And when the Indian Olympic Association and the Sports Ministry were not clearing the football team for the Asian Games, Stimac penned an open letter to Prime Minister Modi, seeking his intervention.
Even when selecting his players, Stimac said ‘psychological profile and character’ are the ‘most important things.’ “After that, we come to the understanding (of) the game, football level, knowledge and other things,” he said.
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Football, though, isn’t his be-all and end-all. Stimac, who represented Croatia 53 times, reportedly started a betting company in 2000, which went bankrupt after five years. He then joined the family business of producing olive oil and manufacturing wine before dabbling into another venture – music.
In May 2013, he signed a petition against same-sex marriages and gay couples adopting children, according to Croatian media reports. It was one of the many moments that made him a controversial figure in Croatian sport.
Stimac, however, refutes the claim that he is the ‘controversial one’. “If you ask me what kind of a person I am, I will tell you that I’m a very warm person, very soft person. I cannot walk through life unconsciously,” he said. “When I feel injustice, I’m ready to go through the wall to fight it. Nothing will stop me. If I’m right, I don’t care who is on the opposite side. I don’t care.”