Ilija Aračić (original) (raw)

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Croatian footballer

Ilija Aračić
Personal information
Date of birth (1970-11-15) 15 November 1970 (age 54)
Place of birth Slavonski Brod, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
1980–1985 Ukrina Novo Selo
1985–1991 Polet Bosanksi Brod
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1993 Slavonski Brod
1993–1994 Rijeka 19 (2)
1994–1997 Chemnitzer FC 78 (22)
1997–1998 Tennis Borussia Berlin 49 (24)
1999–2000 Hertha BSC 25 (6)
2000–2002 Arminia Bielefeld 36 (3)
Total 188 (55)
Managerial career
2004–2011 Augsburg (youth team coach)
2012–2015 VfB Stuttgart (youth team coach)
2016–2018 FV Illertissen
2018 VfB Stuttgart (assistant)
2021 CSKA Moscow (assistant)
2021–2022 Hertha BSC (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ilija Aračić (born 15 November 1970) is a Croatian football coach and a former player who played as a striker.[1]

Aračić was born in Slavonski Brod, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. Coming from a sporting family, he started his footballing career as a 9-year-old at Croatian team NK Ukrina Novo Selo, before moving aged 14 to the team his father Anto played for professionally at the time, NK Polet Bosanski Brod.[1] He later played for his local team where he was spotted by scouts of Prva HNL side NK Rijeka.[1] Aračić, a drafter by trade,[1] left Croatia as a result of the War of Independence,[1] signed for Chemnitzer FC in Germany before transferring to Tennis Borussia Berlin in the summer of 1997. During the 1998–99 season, after impressing Hertha BSC with his two goals against them in the DFB-Pokal,[2] quickly signed for TeBe's fellow West Berlin rivals where he played for one and a half years before moving to Arminia Bielefeld and seeing out the twilight of his playing career.

Post-playing career

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In 2004 Aračić took over as coach of FC Augsburg's youth team.[3] On 1 January 2012, he became head coach of the under-19 team of VfB Stuttgart.[4] Aračić moved to FV Illertissen in 2016. In January 2018 he returned to VfB Stuttgart and became assistant coach of Tayfun Korkut.[5]

  1. ^ a b c d e Bunkus, Mathias (18 January 2000). "In dieser Familie konnte Ilija Aračić nur Fußballer werden". Berliner Kurier (in German). Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Tennis Borussia Berlin – Hertha BSC 4:2". fussballdaten.de (in German). 28 October 1998. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  3. ^ "Vertrag mit Jugendtrainer Ilija Aračić verlängert". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). 10 October 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2010.[_permanent dead link_‍]
  4. ^ "Trainerwechsel bei der U19". VfB Stuttgart (in German). 23 December 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  5. ^ "Trainer team complete". VfB Stuttgart. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2018.