Enver Hadžiabdić


Enver Hadžiabdić is a Bosnian retired professional football manager and former player.
He is so far the only person in Željezničar history to have won league titles both as a player and as a manager. As a player he won the Yugoslav First League with Željezničar in 1972 and the First League of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998.

Club career

Hadžiabdić started playing football in the youth teams of Iskra Bugojno and Bratstvo Travnik, before signing his first professional contract with Željezničar in 1965. During the next nine years at Željezničar, he played more than 450 games for the club. He also won the Yugoslav First League in the 1971–72 season with Željezničar.
In 1974, Hadžiabdić signed with Belgian side Charleroi where he stayed for three seasons. After Charleroi he went back to Bosnia and Herzegovina and joined Velež Mostar. After 2 years at Velež, Hadžiabdić went to Greece and signed a contract with AEL where he stayed 1 year and afterwards retired from professional football in 1980 at the age of 35.

International career

Hadžiabdić was one of the best European defenders in the early 1970s. That fact secured him a place in the Yugoslavia national team in which he collected 11 caps. He was also a member of the team that participated in the 1974 FIFA World Cup and in the 1976 UEFA Euro.

Managerial career

After retirement, Hadžiabdić returned to Sarajevo where he graduated from the University of Sarajevo Faculty of Physical Education.

Managing in Iran and Qatar

In 1994, Hadžiabdić became a manager of the Iran Olympic team, and two years later in 1995, manager of the Al-Rayyan youth team. He was the manager of the youth team until 1997.

Željezničar

In January 1998, Hadžiabdić took over the place of manager in his favourite Željezničar. He managed to lead the club to the Bosnian championship title in his first season. In the winter of 1999, Hadžiabdić stepped down because of disappointing league results, despite winning the Bosnian Supercup in 1998 against the club's biggest rivals - Sarajevo.
Nevertheless, he was back again next season in 1999 in which he guided the club to its first Bosnian Cup title in 2000. He again left the club shortly after winning the cup.

Tirana

In 2002, Hadžiabdić became the new manager of Albanian Superliga club Tirana. In his only season with the club, he won the Albanian Supercup on 14 September 2002 after beating Dinamo Tirana 6–0 in that year's Supercup. He was sacked by the club management on 21 February 2003 after making poor results.

Return to Željezničar

After several years working as a stadium director, he yet again became manager of Željezničar on 10 January 2007 and stayed on that position until June 2008.

Honours

Player

Željezničar
Željezničar
Tirana