#coaching - Dragan Skočić | OFFICIAL | Professional Football Coach

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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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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Skocic shortlisted for Zob Ahan coaching role

admin — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 22:00:00 +0000

Tasnim – ISFAHAN, Dragan Skocic has been nominated to take charge of Zob Ahan football team.
The Iranian team parted company with Mojtaba Hosseini at the end of last season, where Zob Ahan finished in fourth place in the Iran Professional League.
Skocic was appointed as Malavan Bandar Anzali coach in 2013 and took charge of Foolad in the following year for two years.
The 49-year-old coach also was a nominee to be appointed Esteghlal coach in the past.
Former Tractor Sazi coach Amir Ghalenoei, the US U-18 coach Omid Namazi and ex-Saipa coach Majid Saleh also are nominees to take charge of the Isfahan based team.

Dragan Skocic shortlisted for Zob Ahan coaching role

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