• Srecko Katanec guided Slovenia to the 2000 European Championship and 2002 World Cup

• Katanec returned for a second stint in 2013 but failed to repeat the success

• A defender during his playing days, Katanec represented both Yugoslavia and Slovenia

Jayanta Oinam After gaining independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, Slovenia took less than a decade to qualify for the World Cup, a feat they repeated again after missing the 2006 edition. Before that, in 2000, they competed in the European Championship, their first major tournament as an independent nation. These feats, when taken into consideration the country’s size and population, defy the odds. At the heart of these achievements, there was one man — Srecko Katanec. When Katanec took over the Slovenia job after the country’s shambolic qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup, the national team was ranked 95th in the world. In the said qualifiers, they had managed only one draw, a 3-3 draw courtesy Primoz Gliha’s hat-trick, against Croatia. Zlatko Zahovic — against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, in the return fixture — was the only other Slovene to score during the course of qualification. Their goal difference was -15.

But the arrival of Srecko Katanec, who had previously coached the U-21 team and NK Gorica, changed the fortunes of the national team. By the end of 2001, Slovenia were 25th, and have already played at the 2000 Euro — an honour they earned after beating Ukraine 3-2 on aggregate in the play-offs with Milenko Acimovic scoring a long ranger in the first leg for a 2-1 win following Zahovic’s equalizer in Ljubljana. Slovenia, ranked lowest among the 16 teams in the tournament, made their debut with a thrilling 3-3 draw with Yugoslavia before losing to Spain. A goalless draw in the final group game against Norway ended their hopes of making the knock-outs at the first attempt. A couple of months after the Euro 2000 disappointment, Srecko Katanec used almost the same star-cast to qualify for the 2022 World Cup undefeated. They opened the campaign with a nervy draw against the Faroe Islands with both sides scoring late goals. But Slovenia reeled off four more draws and five wins to finish second in Group 1 behind Russia and book a play-off ticket. Other teams in the group were Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Luxembourg. In the play-offs, they beat Romania 3-2 on aggregate with a 2-1 first leg win and a 1-1 draw in the return leg. During the campaign, the former defender used a reliable 3-5-2 system, a shift from the rigid formation that his predecessors had employed. It meant that the team can now play without restraints, going for the attack at will. The line-up would often feature Marinko Galic as the libero while Miran Pavlin and Mladen Rudonja ran the show in the midfield together. Zahovic, meanwhile, provided the attacking prowess even though he missed the return fixture away in Bucharest.

Their first World Cup outing, however, proved a fraught practice as the team’s star player Zahovic was sent home following a feud with Katanec after the first match against Spain, which they lost 3-1. Then defeats against South Africa 1-0, and Paraguay 3-1 followed. Katanec also tendered his resignation. But during his four-year stint, Srecko Katanec also instilled self-belief in the team. Slovenia returned to the World Cup eight years later with Matjae Kek at the helm. And this time, they almost qualified for the knockouts. A win against Algeria in the opener was followed by a 2-2 draw with the United States of America. They needed a draw against England in the final group game, but a 1-0 defeat meant that Three Lions finished second behind the USA. Katanec, who had since worked with Olympiacos, Macedonia and the United Arab Emirates, returned for a second stint in 2013. But he failed to repeat the success of his first spell, and he left the post in 2017. Despite his bitter-sweet experience as Slovenia's coach, Katanec managed to leave an unrivalled legacy in the country's football history. He was the first coach to inspire a country of some two million people to dream big. He gave them the courage to punch above their weight. Srecko Katanec was born in 1963 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was a member of the Yugoslav team that reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.