21/07/2007 11:35 AM
As a boy, Mark Viduka watched on TV as Ivica Osim guided Yugoslavia to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. A few years later he played under him in a testimonial match for Croatian legend Zvonimir Boban.
This week the pair has crossed paths again several times in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Hanoi, and on Saturday as coach of Japan, Osim sees Viduka as the man most likely to ruin Japan's campaign for a third straight Asian Cup title at My Dinh National Stadium.
For a 66-year-old from Sarajevo, and a 31-year-old Victorian who has a proud Croatian heritage, the 17 years since the 1990 World Cup have been a rollercoaster.
As the former Yugoslavia descended into war in 1992, Osim left his post as national coach. His home city faced bombardment, and he headed to Greece in 1992 to take over Panathinaikos, before taking over at struggling Austrian club Sturm Graz in 1994.
About the same time Osim was establishing himself in Graz, a young kid from the western suburbs of Melbourne was beginning to make an impact in Zagreb.
Osim's background led him to organise pre-season friendlies against Croatian teams for his club and it was in one of these matches where Viduka first encountered the indomitable figure who had been such a hero of his youth.
"I've always admired him as coach, obviously when he coached the Yugoslav national team, a long time ago in the World Cup it Italy, I've always known of him A few times, when I was playing in Croatia, we played against Sturm Graz" Viduka said.
As Osim had found out in 1992, politics and sport can be an ugly mix, and Viduka left Croatia in 1998 disillusioned.
In the same year Osim led Sturm Graz to their first Austrian Bundesliga title, Viduka moved to Celtic, where his career took off. Luck, or particularly bad luck from Henrik Larsson, played its part. The Swede missed the season with a broken leg and Viduka took his chance, netting 27 goals. He was soon off to the English Premier League, and Leeds.
In October 2002, Viduka and Osim finally got to meet. In a testimonial match for Boban in Zagreb, a match famous for Croatian tennis legend Goran Ivanisevic scoring, Viduka played under Osim's guidance. It was then that Viduka got an appreciation for the genius behind the madness.
"I found him to be a very approachable person, and he made an impression on me," he said.
It's been nearly five years since that night, and with Osim plying his trade in Japan, first as a club coach, and now as a national coach, and Viduka established in England, there hasn't been much cause for them crossing paths.
But from the amount of times Viduka was mentioned by Osim during Friday's press conference, it's evident that the Japan coach has a great respect for the him.
And he even had a safety warning for the Australian skipper ahead of Saturday's game.
"Maybe we'll have some luck. Maybe Mark Viduka will fall down in the hotel lobby and injure himself. It is very slippery," Osim said.