Who is Vahid Halilhodzic?
While the 2022 World Cup was the scene of many stories, the most impressive was undoubtedly Morocco's making history by reaching the semi-finals. Morocco, which came to Qatar under the management of Walid Regragui, bought the ticket to Qatar under the management of Vahid Halilhodzic.
Halilhodzic, who took a national team to the World Cup for the fourth time in his career, failed to participate in the tournament for the third time.
Continuing to make history as the first African team to reach the semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup, Morocco was making championship calculations in the tournament that witnessed the firsts. Although everyone was talking about Walid Regragui, who took office 81 days before the start of the tournament, Vahid Halilhodzic, the coach who helped Morocco buy the Qatar ticket, watched his students on television.
The experienced coach, who succeeded in taking four national teams to the World Cup in his career, could only take the stage with Algeria in the biggest organization of football. The Bosnian coach, who could not participate in the 2010 and 2018 World Cups 2022, says, "This is a great injustice both sportingly and ethically." "Every coach's dream is to play in the World Cup. I was stripped of my rights three times. All for different reasons..."
Halilhodzic, who was born in 1952 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, made his name in football in France. After winning the Ligue 1 championship with Nantes in 1983, he wanted to start coaching in his country, but war broke out in Yugoslavia. After starting in Beauvais, France, he won the African Champions League with Raja Casablanca and then returned to France. He took Lille from the second division and carried it to the Champions League. In 2008, he took over the Ivory Coast. Didier Drogba, brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure, along with Salomon Kalou and other players, qualified for the World Cup for the first time in the country's history.
"That team had great potential. My firing hurt me deeply," says Halilhodzic. "This decision was not made by the football federation. We have eliminated in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals and the government was not happy about it. It was pre-election and I was sacked for political reasons. We played 24 games and only had one loss. Only one loss. It was also in overtime. gave"
Ivory Coast, which appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson after Vahid Halilhodzic, lost to Brazil after drawing with Portugal. They could only defeat North Korea and left the tournament with 4 points. In 2010, when they were eliminated in the African Cup of Nations, the Togo team bus was shot and three people died. Halilhodzic stated that this attack affected the team.
Halilhodzic, who became the head of Dinamo Zagreb after being fired and won the championship, once again returned to Africa and this time took over Algeria. They only lost two in the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers and qualified to go to Brazil. After losing 2-1 to Belgium, they passed South Korea 4-2 and a 1-1 draw against Russia took them to the next round. In the last 16, they faced the champion Germany and took the game to overtime. Schürrle in the 92nd minute and Mesut Özil in the 120th brought the fairy tale to an end, but even today the football played by Algeria is remembered.
"Even today, everyone who sees me says that Algeria deserved that match," says Halilhodzic. "The entire German team, including the players, congratulated us. That match was in Porto Alegre. When I went down to the city to buy something, everyone who saw me was shouting 'Algeria' and shaking my hands. The most memorable thing was that we returned to the country."
While Algeria has left behind a milestone in terms of football in the country, thousands of people are witnessing the historical moment. "I will never forget our arrival in the country," says Halilhodzic. "It was such a warm, heartfelt thing. We played a surprisingly beautiful and daring game. And it paid off."
While Halilhodzic turned down the new contract offer, he took over Japan in the following year and entered the same cycle once again. "Japan was a different world," says Halilhodzic. "I didn't even have a problem with a football player in three years. Their approach to football was incredible. Their work ethic, their professionalism... It was almost robotic" So why was he fired from Japan? "The financiers weren't happy," says Halilhodzic. "I was pressured to take a few players to the World Cup because they had a long-term marketing strategy. That's why I was fired."
While Halilhodzic did not name the players in question, the Japan Football Federation completely denied these allegations and stated that the decision to be fired was "for football reasons". Akira Nishino, who replaced Halilhodzic, who was sacked for the second time before the World Cup, took the team to the last 16 and had a dramatic finish against Belgium. Halilhodzic, who subsequently took over Nantes, returned to Africa once again in 2019. This time his stop was Morocco...
Hakim Ziyech, who played poorly against Mauritania, got into trouble with Halilhodzic while he was dressing as a substitute against Burundi. Mazraoui, another top-profile player on the team, also had problems with Halilhodzic. "It was all about not drinking water," Mazraoui says, as he recounted in 2021. "The hours we trained were very hot. He wanted us to drink water every five minutes. After a break or two, I hadn't had water because I couldn't be thirsty. He specifically asked me to drink it. Romain Saiss gave me a bottle of water and I poured it out. After that, the problems started."
Neither Ziyech nor Mazraoui was included in the Africa Cup of Nations squad in 2022. The absences of Ziyech and Mazraoui were frequently brought up after they lost to finalist Egypt in the quarter-finals. Even after the 4-1 DR Congo victory in the World Cup qualifiers, the stands were shouting Ziyech's name. “We had a great three years with a completely new and young staff, with good results,” says Halilhodzic. "We were building something strong, but I was pressured by the media and some people. I knew some players were causing trouble."
In an interview with SoFoot, Halilhodzic explained the problem between him and the journalists and said that the news about his family overflowed the glass. "It was an extraordinary experience," says Halilhodzic. "A week after I left Nantes, I signed for Morocco a third of what we won in France. I made financial and moral sacrifices. If you head a team, you have to live there. I went to the office every day. I traveled to watch a game on the weekends. I watched the players. Thousands of players. I renewed 80 percent of the squad. We got seven wins and one draw. After the federation began to put pressure. They wanted three or four players to be included in the squad. I did not give in. If you play for the national team, you should also come to the game in Kinshasa. and to Guinea at the time of the military coup. I plan to write a book one day. You can read what happened there."
Supporting France during the World Cup qualifiers, Halilhodzic said in an interview before the tournament that he did not even follow Morocco's squad. “One day a mother called me and was crying and asking why her son wasn't in the squad,” says Halilhodzic. "You can't even imagine how difficult it was to make these choices. I still haven't gotten over the trauma I went through when I was a football player in 1982. Even if you're a perfect player, if you don't work hard, I will happily remove you from the squad."
"Football gave me everything," says Halilhodzic. "A lot of fun, satisfaction, knowledge. But there were times when it was hard to accept, like not going to the World Cup three times. I took those teams to the tournament and I was supposed to be in charge. It just shows that life is unfair. So is football."