Dragan Skočić | OFFICIAL | Professional Football Coach

“Traktor”‘s head coach has resigned

Dragan Skočić — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 22:01:40 +0000

Dragan Skočić, the Croatian head coach of Tabriz’s “Tractor” club, has resigned. The club’s press service released information on this matter.

The 57-year-old specialist left his position at his own request.D. Skočić had been coaching the “Tractor” club since 2024. Skočić has left Tractor following a historic title and a Super Cup win, leaving them top of the league, third in the Champions League Elite, and after knocking Persepolis out of the cup in an unforgettable match.

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AFC Champions League Elite: Skocic challenges Tractor to aim for more

Dragan Skočić — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:11:01 +0000

Monday’s 2-1 win against Qatar’s Al Duhail SC – which took the Islamic Republic of Iran side to 14 points – was achieved the hard way as a second half revival saw Shojae Khalilzadeh equalising with Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh then netting a stoppage time winner.

“I am very happy with today’s game, we played a great game,” said Skocic. “We gave the penalty away too easily in the first half but otherwise we produced a good half.

“We had more scoring opportunities. We were able to press the opponents well and closed them with discipline. I like this way of playing and today we played a little more with our minds and thoughts.

“We have a long season ahead of us. Our achievement has been satisfying, but we are looking to the future. There is no one in the locker room who is satisfied with advancing from the first stage, but what has been done is respectable.”

Djamel Belmadi was disappointed after lapses in concentration cost his side valuable points, with the Al Duhail head coach saying lack of control shown in the centre of the pitch meant they couldn’t capitalise on Benjamin Bourigeaud’s opener.

“We were close to securing a draw, with only two minutes remaining,” said Belmadi. “At least if we couldn’t win, we should have earned a point, but in the end, we lost, which we didn’t deserve to.

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Joyless football in Iran

Dragan Skočić — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:32:45 +0000

The Tehran Times editorial characterizes Tractor SC’s 2025/26 Hazfi Cup win over Persepolis as a “joyless” victory, arguing that intense fan hostility and a win-at-all-costs mentality have eroded the spirit of Iranian football. While Tractor advanced following a dramatic 1(8)–1(7) penalty shootout win, the match highlighted a deeper, toxic tension overshadowing on-field athletic achievement

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Skocic: Honored to be named Coach of the Season in Iran by Varzesh 3

Dragan Skočić — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:21:43 +0000

Honored to be named Coach of the Season in Iran by Varzesh 3.
Gratitude to coaches, captains,experts, journalists and all others for the recognition — and to my team for making it possible

Under Skočić’s leadership, Tractor finished the 30-game season as champions with the following record:

Total Points: 68
Record: 21 Wins, 5 Draws, 4 Losses
Goals: 57 scored, 19 conceded (+38 goal difference)

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“Tractor” Defeats “Esteghlal” to Win Iranian Super Cup

Dragan Skočić — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 21:41:55 +0000

The winner of the Iranian Super Cup in football has been determined.

The champion “Tractor” faced the cup winner “Esteghlal” in the final match.

The match held at the “Nagsh-e Jahan” stadium in Isfahan ended with the victory of the Tabriz club. Although “Tractor” was in a losing position, they showed determination in the last minutes and were able to make a comeback. The team, which distinguished itself in the 87th and 90+2nd minutes, won with a score of 2:1.

It should be noted that “Tractor”, which became the Iranian champion for the first time in the 2024/2025 season, won its first Super Cup in history.

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Tractor FC crowned champions of Iran’s Premier League for first time

Dragan Skočić — Sat, 03 May 2025 10:40:47 +0000

Tractor FC have clinched its maiden Iranian Premier League title after a dominant 4-0 victory over Shams Azar in the 28th week of the season.

The championship was sealed after second-place Sepahan lost to Gol Gohar, leaving Tractor uncatchable with two matches remaining.

Fans in the northeastern Iranian city of Tabriz, where the club is based, flooded the streets in celebration, setting off fireworks and dancing in jubilation.

Club CEO Mohammad Reza Zonouzi announced plans for a public victory celebration in the city.

Under Croatian coach Dragan Skočić, Tractor secured direct qualification for next season’s AFC Champions League Elite.

The Croatian coach, who previously led Iran’s national team to the 2022 World Cup before being replaced, redeemed himself by guiding Tractor to historic success.

Key signings, including ex-Persepolis stars Alireza Beiranvand, Mehdi Torabi, and Danial Esmaeilifar, bolstered the squad.

With 64 points from 28 matches, Tractor lead Sepahan (56 points), while Persepolis, Foolad, and Gol Gohar round out the top five.

The triumph marks a milestone for the club, backed heavily by investor Zonouzi in recent years but falling short of the league title until now.

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Iran’s Ex-Coach Skocic Takes Charge of Tractor

Dragan Skočić — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 17:55:08 +0000

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s national football team’s former head coach Dragan Skocic was named as the new coach of Tractor football club on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old coach is familiar with Iran’s football since he has previously worked as the head coach of Malavan, Foolad, Khooneh be Khooneh, and Sanat Naft football teams.

Skocic was appointed as Iran’s coach in 2020 as Belgian coach Marc Wilmots’ replacement and managed to take Team Melli to the 2022 World Cup.

Shortly afterwards, he was replaced by Carlos Queiroz, but the Portuguese failed to book a place in the World Cup’s next round.

Tractor football team has not won Iran league’s title so far and looks forward to bringing an end to its title drought in Iran Professional League (IPL).

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Dragan Skočić has officially been appointed as the head coach of the Croatian U-21 national team

Dragan Skočić — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:11:18 +0000

Dragan Skočić has taken over the duties as the head coach of the Croatian U-21 national team, after arranging the details of the collaboration with Marijan Kustić.

The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) posted the following news:

Dragan Skočić has taken over the duties as the head coach of the Croatian U-21 national team, after arranging the details of the collaboration with the president of the Croatian Football Federation, Marijan Kustić. His appointment has been confirmed by the Executive committee of the Croatian Football Federation.

The Croatian U-21 national team has qualified for the European Championship for the third consecutive time and the former head coach, Igor Bišćan, was appointed as the coach of Dinamo Zagreb. Dragan Skočić is taking over the helm of the young national team after signing the contract with the president of the Federation, Marijan Kustić, at the Federation’s headquarters.

The last position of Dragan Skočić was leading the Iranian national team, which he successfully led to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. By collecting 25 points in 10 matches in the third round of qualifiers, he set a new record for the Iranian national team. Despite achieving extraordinary results, Skočić didn’t have the chance to lead Iran at its final match.

Before coaching the Iranian national team, Skočić led Rijeka, Interblock Ljubljana, Al Arabi, Al Nassr, Malavan, Foolad, Rayka Babol and Sanat Naft. Some of his coaching successes were winning the Croatian Cup with Rijeka and the Slovenian Cup and the Supercup with Interblock, taking Al Arabi to the finals of the Crown Prince Cup and of the Federation Cup, as well as leading Al Nassr and Foolad in the Asian Champions League. Skočić was among the nominees for the 2021 World’s Best National Coach award by IFFHS.

– I am taking on this function with a lot of pride, ambition and optimism and I would like to thank president Kustić and the Federation management for the trust they have shown. Igor did a great job with our young national team and I hope to end the current cycle in the right way and with the best performance at the European Championship, and afterwards to start working on forming the new generation. We have many talented and good players and I look forward to helping them reaching their potentials with my knowledge and experience – said the new U-21 national team head coach, Dragan Skočić.

– We are thrilled to have arranged this collaboration with such a renowned, successful and recognized expert, which confirms how much importance we lay on the development of our young football players. I am so grateful to Dragan for accepting our proposal and deciding to take on this challenge, although he is extremely sought after as a coach after his outstanding achievements with the Iranian A national team. I wish Dragan good luck and success and I must say that the Federation will give him the greatest support to achieve the results and development goals we have jointly set – pointed out the president of the Croatian football federation Marijan Kustić.

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Changing coach Skocic ahead of 2022 World Cup not good decision

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 23:00:00 +0000

TEHRAN – So many experts had warned Iran football federation that to change the coaching staff just two months before the 2022 World Cup would harm Team Melli but the federation finally sacked Dragan Skocic.

Carlos Queiroz was the federation’s favorite option to replace the Croatian coach and they said the Portuguese coach knows Iran football very well and so he would help the team qualify for the next stage for the first time ever.

Queiroz had led Iran in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups and had performed well, especially in the latter but he has failed to end Iran’s group stage qualification drought after three editions in charge.

The football experts had previously said Queiroz was facing shortage of time and it could be harmful but Iran football president Mehdi Taj didn’t take care about the criticisms and appointed him as Team Melli coach.

In the match against England, Queiroz showed that he is unfamiliar with the lineup and Team Melli suffered their worst ever result in the history of World Cups.

Iran football team earned a win over Wales but were edged by the U.S., while even a draw would see them qualify for the next stage.

In my opinion, Queiroz should not be blamed for what he has done. It’s federation’s fault.

Skocic was the best coach for the National Team since he knew his team very well and, without a doubt, Iran had a chance to make history under leadership of him in Qatar.

Iran have competed six times in the World Cup but have never advanced to the knockout stage.

In comparison to the Asian teams, Team Melli had been drawn in an easy group but missed a golden chance to make history.

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/479224/Changing-coach-ahead-of-2022-World-Cup-not-good-decision

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