Zavisa interested in coaching Pakistan again

KARACHI: Serbia’s Zavisa Milosavljevic, a former Pakistan football coach, is again interested in Pakistan’s coaching job if he is given another opportunity once the country’s football affairs get settled.

“If I get an opportunity to work in Pakistan again in the coming period I am ready to go back and contribute to the development of football in Pakistan,” Zavisa told ‘The News’ in an interaction from Serbia.

“I am constantly following the developments in Pakistani football. I hope a new chapter will open and Pakistan football will enter a progressive and development era,” the coach said. Zavisa was relieved of his Pakistan duty after the country lost to Afghanistan in a friendly game on August 20, 2013, in Kabul.

After he was relieved, Shehzad Anwar, now the only Pakistani with a pro license, served as Pakistan’s head coach for the SAFF Cup in Nepal. He was succeeded by Bahrain’s Mohammad Shamlan, who worked till the dispute in Pakistan’s football emerged in early 2015 which destroyed the sport.

Now FIFA has installed a Normalisation Committee which is headed by little-known Humza Khan as its chairman. The committee has been given the task to conduct club scrutiny and hold elections at the district and provincial level before the PFF elections. The NC will have to fullfil the task by June 2020.

Zavisa was not satisfied with his previous stint with Pakistan and said that he was prevented from pursuing his football philosophy. “I also want to say that I was prevented from pursuing my football philosophy until the end of working with the Pakistan national team in 2012-2013,” he said.

Zavisa is currently working with the Uzbekistan team. Under Zavisa Pakistan did not achieve anything big but certainly he did a solid job in making the players technically strong. The players learnt ground passes and an improvement was seen in their overall game.

Pakistan is also indebted to Zavisa as after having severed ties with Pakistan as head coach he served as coach of Kyrgyzstan’s top club Dordoi Bishkek for some time. During his stint with Dordoi, he signed a few top boys of Pakistan, including the premier striker Kaleemullah who is now earning a lot as a professional player.

Possessing UEFA-A and AFC Pro diplomas, Zavisa, in his 33-year long professional coaching career has worked as head coach of many clubs and national teams in Yugoslavia, Serbia, Montenegro, Rwanda, Lesotho, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.