Đukić is Official

It was announced yesterday (Christmas press conferences are always a great idea) that former U-21 and Partizan Belgrade coach Miroslav Đukić will take charge of the Serbian national team starting January 1.

Since his resignation from the Partizan bench last week, it’s been a foregone conclusion that Đukić would get the job, but the length of the contract is a big surprising: It’s only for two years, which means it ends before the World Cup in South Africa — not exactly a resounding vote of confidence, is it? The FSS have said the contract will automatically extend for another six months if Serbia qualify, but why why not make it run 30 months from the start, like the contract Fabio Capello got in England? (Granted, Đukić can only dream about the kind of money Capello is making, but the length of the deal seems quite reasonable.) Contracts are hardly worth the paper they’re written on these days, so I don’t understand why the FSS wouldn’t assume the best and just give him a contract through the World Cup, since everyone and his brother would know he’d have to qualify to avoid being fired. It seems like they missed out on a chance to show their faith in him, which is not the best way to start a relationship.

In addition to guiding the full national team through World Cup qualifying (against France, the Faroe Islands, Romania, Austria and Lithuania), Đukić will also be in charge of the Olympic team when it goes to Beijing next summer. The Olympic rules dictate that the side be made up mostly of U-23 players with three overage ones allowed, which means the team will probably feature a lot of his old U-21 team and, in reality, could have a lot of overlap with the full national side. Generally putting national team coaches in charge of both isn’t considered the best idea because it divides their attention, but because so much of the Olympic team will probably end up in the full national side, in this case it makes sense, if only because it gives Đukić more time with his team.

The FSS say the appointment was unanimous, and Đukić himself is all fired up, and already talking about bringing kids into the side. “We want to play aggressive football and take the game to our rivals while keeping the flair and talent that brought success in the past. To do that, we need to bring in young prospects who will play their hearts out for their country, sing their national anthem with pride and win the hearts of all fans.” Hells yeah!

So far, two friendly matches have been scheduled: Against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on May 24, and against Germany in Gelsenkirchen a week later. Ireland face Montenegro in WC qualifying, while Germany will play Croatia in their Euro 2008 group about a week after the Serbia friendly, so both teams have obvious brought in the Serbs hoping they’ll present a similar style to those to sides. Given that the matches will be held shortly before the Olympics, one assumes Đukić will also be using them as warm-ups, and will call up his Olympic team for them rather than the full national team.