The big surprise was that this summer, at the beginning of the season, Željko Sopić was fired as coach of Rijeka.
This happened after last season he was unexpectedly successful as runner-up in the championship and Cup finalist. In both competitions, he lost the trophies to Dinamo, after leading the championship for a large part of the season.
Before that, Sopić was not on good terms with Rijeka’s president and owner Damir Miskovic, and the coach claims that everything started when he didn’t want to put him in the team Stevena Juncaja, a 26-year-old American with Montenegrin roots. His father George Juncaj is an entrepreneur who in 2019 became the owner of 50 Michigan Stars, a soccer club from the Detroit area, Index writes.
Then he invested in the Slovenian Gorica, and last year he was mentioned as an investor, co-owner, and even a buyer of Mišković’s club. Juncaj’s son came to Rijeka in the summer of 2023 as part of the rapprochement between Mišković and his father Juncaj, while the club’s coach was Sergej Jakirovic, but he played only two games in the Cup. He left Rijeka last April on loan to the Michigan Stars, his father’s club. Last summer he was released from Rijeka without compensation.
Sopic after dismissal: I am surprised
Sopic is now revealed the details of the conflict with Mišković around Juncaj:
When the gentleman in question came to Rijeka, I wasn’t there, Sergej was. The man did not have the quality to be in Rijeka, we have no reason to lie. He should not have been part of the roster by any criteria.
There is only one truth and I will remember it when I am 90 years old. I understand private equity, everything is clear to me. Tell me to push a 12-year-old boy because it’s a Rijeka project and I’ll push him, no problem. But like this… The public, the journalists, and the guys in the cabin will kill you… What, they don’t know what’s going on?
Guys, I’m fighting for the champion and I would have to put someone to play? At that level? I can’t lead Spain even then. And like this, don’t even ask me. Sometimes you don’t even have to say everything, but be a gentleman and keep quiet. I was not there when the man came, but I was there when some things were required.
At that time, everyone in the club, from Raić-Sudar to the gentleman above, knew that because of this I made the mandate available three days before the match with Gorica. “I wouldn’t, and you bring someone who will”, that was my attitude. I know that President Miskovic was in Dubai at the time. There are 22 or 25 players in the cabin, I have the same first and last.
I should talk to them after this too? I can’t do that, nor will I ever be able to. I’m always in favor of pushing the local boy, whatever he’s called. But something like this, I can’t do, he said during a guest appearance in the Podcast Incubator (part from 49:50).
This is for me a dream come truesince I was a small child, I wanted to play in Rijeka and I could not imagine that it would become a reality. My father is from Montenegro, he grew up following the Yugoslav league. We knew Croatian teams, Rijeka was one of them.
I was obsessed with Rijeka because it’s a club by the sea and I always said to my father ‘imagine if I could play there one day, that would be great, he spoke Steven Juncaj during the presentation in Rijeka in the summer of 2023.
Last summer, father Juncaj, as an investor in the Slovenian club Mura, resigned from the coach Tonci Žlogar. Namely, George’s son Steven arrived in Mura before that, and coach Žlogar did not put him in the team because he was not physically ready to play, claims Delo.
That’s it It made Juncaj the elder so angry that he had an argument with Žlogar, who then had to leave the club even though he had a successful start to the season. It seems that George Juncaj has decided to take matters into his own hands on this occasion to ensure that his son gets a chance to play.
According to the Nogomania portal, Juncaj appointed himself the new sports director of the club. His son played ten games for Mura this season and scored one goal, but after that he left the club and is currently without an engagement.
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(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Goran Kovacic/PIXSELL)
