Ante Šimundža

Ante Šimundža (born 28 September 1971) is a Slovenian football manager and former professional footballer. He was the manager of Maribor from September 2013 until August 2015.[2]

Ante Šimundža
Personal information
Full name Ante Šimundža
Date of birth (1971-09-28) 28 September 1971
Place of birth Maribor, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 Mura (Head Coach)
Youth career
Železničar Maribor[1]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1996 Maribor 170 (64)
1997 Brummell Sendai 22 (11)
1997 Maribor 2 (0)
1998 Young Boys 8 (0)
1998 Malmö FF 3 (0)
1999–2000 Maribor 56 (14)
2001 La Louvière 12 (5)
2002 Aluminij 15 (11)
2002–2003 Šmartno ob Paki 28 (9)
2005–2007 SV Wildon 48 (17)
2008–2009 SV Straß 23 (10)
Total 387 (141)
National team
1992 Slovenia U21 1 (0)
1993–1999 Slovenia 3 (0)
Teams managed
2008–2011 Maribor (assistant)
2011–2012 Mura 05
2012 GAK
2013 Mura 05
2013 Aluminij
2013–2015 Maribor
2017– Mura
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

He started his career in the youth selections of Železničar Maribor and moved to Maribor after the independence of Slovenia in 1991.[3] He stayed there for six seasons scoring 64 league goals in 170 appearances.[4] He played for a number of different foreign clubs between 1997 and 1998, however, plagued by constant ankle injuries he soon returned to his home town club.[3] There he was an important part of Maribor's qualification to the UEFA Champions League during the 1999–2000 season.[3] He was the scorer of the winning goal in the first round of the group stage when Maribor defeated Dynamo Kyiv in Kiev, Ukraine.[5] In 2001, he again moved abroad and played for La Louvière, before returning to his native country and finishing his professional career with Aluminij and Šmartno.[4] Šimundža has made a total of 256 Slovenian PrvaLiga appearances, scoring 87 goals in the process.[4] Considered a Maribor club legend, he is tied with Gregor Židan as a player with the most appearances for the club during the 1990s.[6]

International career

Šimundža has been capped three times for the Slovenia national football team between 1993 and 1999.[7] He has represented his nation on matches against Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece.[7]

Coaching career

Šimundža began his coaching career in 2003, when he was a coach of the youth selections at Železničar Maribor, where he started his career as a player. He started his senior coaching career in 2008, when he was appointed as an assistant coach of Darko Milanič at Maribor.[8] He was part of Maribor's sports department until 2011 when he was selected as a head coach of Mura 05.[9] His season with Mura 05 was impressive and he turned the team around, changing it from a relegation contender to the eventual UEFA competitions qualifier, as the club finished third during the 2011–12 Slovenian PrvaLiga season.[3] By the end of his first season as head coach, he was nominated for the best coach in the league.[10] He then accepted an offer of the one time Austrian champions, GAK, signing with the club in June 2012.[11]

Personal life

Šimundža was born in Maribor, present day Slovenia as the youngest of two children, with his sister being six years older than him.[3] His father was a Croat from Split and his mother a Slovene from Kidričevo.[3] He is married and has two sons named Luka and Jure, who got their names after their grandfathers.[3]

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References
  1. Gorazd Nejedly (17 August 2015). "Ante Šimundža je začutil, da ne gre več naprej". Delo (in Slovenian). Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  2. Jaka Lopatič (17 August 2015). "Šimundža dobil nogo, danes znan že novi trener" [Simundza kicked out, new coach will be known today] (in Slovenian). Siol Sportal.
  3. Tamara Pocak (28 May 2012). "Žena se zaman trudi, da bi me spravila na plesišče" (in Slovenian). Ekipa. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  4. "Ante Šimundža" (in Slovenian). Slovenian PrvaLiga. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  5. "Zapisnik: Dinamo Kijev – Maribor" (in Slovenian). NK Maribor. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  6. NK Maribor (13 December 2010). "Veličastnih 50" (in Slovenian). nkmaribor.com. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  7. "Ante Šimundža" (in Slovenian). Football Association of Slovenia. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  8. Borut Cvetko (Photo) (5 August 2009). "Zlatko Zahovič, športni direktor NK Maribor , Ante Šimundža, pomočnik trenerja NK Maribor in Darko Milanič, trener NK Maribor" (in Slovenian). mediaspeed.net.
  9. S.J. (24 August 2011). "Šimundža na klopi Mure nasledil Pevnika" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija.
  10. D.O. (9 May 2012). "Za igralca leta se poteguje kar 11 nogometašev Maribora" (in Slovenian). Delo.
  11. Matej Rijavec (25 June 2010). "Mura išče novega trenerja: Šimundža skočil čez mejo" (in Slovenian). RTV Slovenija.
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