Tomaž Kavčič

Tomaž Kavčič
Personal information
Full name Tomaž Kavčič
Date of birth (1953-11-28) 28 November 1953
Place of birth Novo mesto, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Hunan Billows
Teams managed
Years Team
1995-1997 NK HiT Gorica (assistant)
1997–1998 NK Črnuče Factor
1998-1999 NK Svoboda
1999–2000 NK HiT Gorica (youth team/1st team)
2001-2002 NK Bela Krajina
2002–2003 NK Grosuplje
2003 NK Ljubljana
2003–2004 NK Grosuplje
2004–2005 NK Bela Krajina
2006 NK Factor
2007 NK Bela Krajina
2007–2008 NK Livar Ivančna Gorica
2008–2014 Slovenia U-21
2014–2015 Qingdao Jonoon
2015– Hunan Billows

Tomaž Kavčič (born 28 November 1953) is a Slovenian football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Chinese club Hunan Billows.[1] During his spell as coach of Slovenia U-21 national team, he gave debuts to Jan Oblak and Kevin Kampl, who broke into the national team on behalf of Kavčič's insistence.[2] He was one of Matjaž Kek's technical assistants at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa with the Slovenia A-team.[3] While playing for Vozila Gorica he scored his debut goal in 1. SNL aged 38 years and 4 months, which is still a Slovenian record.[4]

Managerial career

After finishing his playing career he took his first coaching job as assistant manager to Milan Miklavič at Gorica in 1995 where he worked until 1997 and got his first experience in the Slovenian top tier. "The Roses" were crowned champions of Slovenia for the first time in 1996 and a year later he joined Črnuče Factor in the 2nd tier. After a brief one-year spell he moved across town to NK Svoboda and stayed for another year before leading the amateur MNZ Ljubljana team in Slovenia's first Uefa Regions Cup appearance in 1999.

The same year he returned to Gorica under Miklavič and took charge of the youth team and for a short spell he made his debut in the 1st Division as coach of the senior team. He started his first full season as coach in the 1. SNL at his hometown club NK Bela Krajina, but after the 2001-02 season he went back to the lower leagues with NK Grosuplje. After another brief spell his career really took off with two promotions in three years. After spending the first part of the 2003-04 season in the 1st Division with NK Ljubljana he returned to Bela Krajina and in 2004 he gained promotion with the "Belokranjci".

The team fought off relegation in 2004-05, but Kavčič took on a new challenge after two years in charge. Again he took over a second tier team, this time his old club Factor, and this time the small local team from the banks of the Sava river gained promotion in 2006. He didn't get the chance to lead his old side in the 1st Division, but instead returned to Bela Krajina in March 2007. Fighting for survival the team from Črnomelj broke the longest league winning streak in SNL history of soon-to-be-champions NK Domžale by beating them 1-0 in April.[5] Bela Krajina were nevertheless relegated and missed the relegation playoff by a single point with their interim manager leaving to take charge of NK Livar Ivančna Gorica for the 2007-08 season which ended in relegation in their first and only appearance in the top tier.[6]

Slovenia U-21 Team

In February 2008 he took over the Slovenian U-21 team and in 2012 Slovenia was a whisker away from qualifying for their first UEFA European Under-21 Championship [7] as his protégés Kampl, Luka Krajnc, Haris Vučkić, Robert Berić, Dejan Lazarević and others beat Sweden 2–1 at Ljudski vrt with Lazarević's penalty, but it wasn't enough for a play-off berth as the Swedes won their last game against Ukraine.[8]

Three more years at the helm followed and with them came the emergence of new talents such as Andraž Šporar and Benjamin Verbič. With the deal to go to China all but agreed the team gave Kavčič the perfect send-off with a resounding 5–0 victory in Andorra.[9] It was later confirmed the Euro 2015 qualifier was to be his final match as Slovenia U-21 boss and Jonoon got their man in July 2014.[10]

Qingdao Jonoon

The Jia League was already under way and Kavčič helped the club finish strongly, only to be denied in the fight for promotion by a seven-point deduction following the January transfer of Liu Jian.[11] His first full season didn't start as planned, but Jonoon soon silenced the critics after the opening day defeat against Harbin Yiteng. After the 4–1 loss they racked up a nine-game unbeaten run which started with winning the Qingdao derby against Qingdao Hainiu by two goals without reply.

Kavčič signing autographs in Qingdao after winning the derby against Hainiu in July 2015.

Round 10 brought renewed hope to the fans as one of the founding members of the Chinese Super League topped the league standings for the first time. Beating Jiangxi Liansheng 2–0 reignited talks of a return to the top tier in their second attempt. On 12 July Jonoon won the derby against city rivals Hainiu courtesy of a Quan Lei strike in the 80th minute[12] but despite the 1–0 win a good run of results with a depleted squad Kavčič was frozen out of the team since the middle of July - when Jonoon was still fighting for promotion.

On 5 October he confirmed that he and his assistant Robert Englaro are leaving the club by mutual consent with their now former team down in 7th place in the Jia League.[13] Kavčič had lost overall control of the team months ago but remained in the city. Jonoon only won once since the controversial decision of the club's leadership and were in danger of finishing in the bottom half of the table.[14] He immediately returned to China and became head coach of Hunan Xiangtao on 30 November.[15]

Hunan Xiangtao

In Yiyang he once more formed a partnership with Englaro and they took charge of a team that barely fought off relegation in 2015. Slovenian defender Rok Elsner was one of only a few signings the team made before the start of the new season. They started off by surprisingly holding promotion chasers Beijing Renhe to a goalless draw in their home opener,[16] followed by a win against another title contender Dalian Yifang.[17]10-man Hunan held Vanderlei Luxemburgo's high-scoring Tianjin Songijang to a 1–1 draw in the next fixture, Luis Carlos Cabezas scoring from a penalty in injury time. After a promising start Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng beat Hunan 2–0 at home and Kavčič suffered his first official defeat at the Yiyang based club.

Honours

Club

HiT Gorica (assistant)
Bela Krajina
Factor Ježica

Managerial statistics

As of 12 April 2016
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Slovenia U-21 February 2008 July 2014 37 13 9 15 35.14
Qingdao Jonoon July 2014 October 2015 32 18 8 6 56.25
Hunan Billows November 2015 Present 4 1 2 1 25.00

References

  1. ↑ http://www.delo.si/sport/nogomet/kavcic-nasel-nov-izziv-na-kitajskem.html
  2. ↑ http://www.siol.net/sportal/nogomet/2014/07/tomaz_kavcic_odhaja_na_kitajsko.aspx
  3. ↑ http://sp2010.nzs.si/sp-2010/reprezentanca
  4. ↑ https://www.rtvslo.si/sport/sportni-sos/novakovic-ob-prvencu-star-skoraj-37-kavcic-se-leto-vec/390407
  5. ↑ http://www.24ur.com/sport/slavje-koprcanov.html
  6. ↑ http://www.nzs.si/reprezentance/U21/tomaz-kavcic
  7. ↑ http://www.nogomania.com/Slovenski-Nogomet/Slovenska-Reprezentanca/Intervju/V-Sloveniji-smo-Copperfieldi.aspx
  8. ↑ http://www.delo.si/sport/nogomet/u-21-slovenija-po-zmagi-nad-svedsko-se-upa-na-ep.html?iskalnik=Delo.si
  9. ↑ http://www.nzs.si/index.php?t=news&id=5308&l=sl
  10. ↑ http://nogomania.com/Slovenski-Nogomet/Slovenska-Reprezentanca/Novica/Kavcic-odhaja-na-Kitajsko.aspx
  11. ↑ http://wildeastfootball.net/2014/10/league-one-round-up-promotion-race-goes-down-to-the-wire-as-chengdu-bid-farewell/
  12. ↑ http://wildeastfootball.net/2015/07/league-one-round-17-wrap-yanbian-ease-past-hebei-bg-beat-dalian-and-jonoon-win-the-qingdao-derby/
  13. ↑ http://www.delo.si/sport/nogomet/spanski-in-angleski-prvak-na-kolenih.html
  14. ↑ http://wildeastfootball.net/2015/10/league-one-round-28-wrap-yanbian-win-promotion-with-difficult-draw-in-wuhan-hebei-and-dalian-both-win
  15. ↑ http://www.delo.si/sport/nogomet/kavcic-nasel-nov-izziv-na-kitajskem.html
  16. ↑ http://wildeastfootball.net/2016/03/league-one-round-1-wrap-quanjian-and-yifang-win-beijing-teams-held-transcending-in-shanghai/
  17. ↑ http://wildeastfootball.net/2016/03/dongbei-focus-dalian-sides-host-action-but-fail-to-deliver/

External links

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