Irfan Smajlagić

As of January 10, 2014

Irfan Smajlagic (Cyrillic Ирфан Смајлагић; born October 16, 1961 in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia ) is a Croatian handball coach and former world class right winger.

Playing career

Association

The 1.88 m wide and 85 kg Right Wing began his career in the talent of RK Borac Banja Luka. At this stage on the basis of the dominance of Metaloplastika Sabac he succeeded no title. In the late 1980s, then arrived in Yugoslavia nationalist currents. After nationalist Serbs had burned 16 mosques and one of the two Catholic churches in the city, he left his home to Zagreb. RK Zagreb Medveščak Zagreb he won in 1989 and 1990 the Yugoslav Cup. Then he moved to the French league only to U.S. Ivry, then USAM Nîmes. Then he returned to Croatia back to Badel 1862 Zagreb, where he was to win the only championship of his career. After brief stops at RK Zamet and Medveščak he moved again back to Ivry, where he met with 174/62 goals scorer in 26 games again. After a year together with his nephew Damir (* 1976) in Bordeaux and the descent in the following year with Livry -Gargan Handball he ended his career.

National

Smajlagic won with the Yugoslav national team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul the bronze medal. In the 1990 World Cup, he was only fourth despite his 38 hits. With the Croatian national team, he won the gold medal at the European Championships 1994 Bronze at the 1995 World Championships silver and the highlight of his career at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. For the Olympic gold medal he was awarded the State Award for Sport Bučar Franjo (Croatian Drzavna nagrada za šport " Franjo Bučar "). After Euro 2000, he ended his international career. There he was elected for the third time after the 1995 World Cup and the Olympics in 1996 in the All- Star team.

Coaching career

After a brief involvement with RK Čakovec 2003 he was under Lino Cervar assistant coach of the Croatian national team, with whom he was 2003 World Champion and 2004 Olympic gold medalist. From 2005 he was a youth coach. Due to the interference Červar in his areas he resigned and was 2007 National coach of Egypt. The North Africans, he led to win the African Cup of Nations 2008 and the 7th place at the World Cup 2009. During the summer of 2009 he signed for three years with RK Bosna Sarajevo and was 2010 Cup Winners' Cup and 2010 and 2011 Bosnian champions. In winter 2011/2012 Smajlagic left the financially ailing club. Since 2012, he stood by RK Zamet Rijeka under contract. In March 2014 he signed with the Croatian RK Lokomotiva, where he will train the women's team.