Dragan Okuka

Dragan Okuka
Personal information
Full name	Dragomir Okuka
Date of birth	2 April 1954 (age 70)
Place of birth	Porija, FPR Yugoslavia
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team
1971–1974	Velež Nevesinje
1974–1985	Velež Mostar
1977–1978	→ Leotar (loan)
1985–1987	Örebro SK
1987–1989	Motala AIF
International career
1978–1979	Yugoslavia U21
1981–1982	Yugoslavia U23
Managerial career
1995–1996	Bečej
1996–1997	Čukarički
1997–1998	Obilić
1999–2000	Budućnost Podgorica
2000	Vojvodina
2000–2003	Legia Warsaw
2005–2006	Serbia and Montenegro U21
2006	Wisła Kraków
2007	Omonia
2008–2010	Lokomotiv Sofia
2010	Kavala
2011–2013	Jiangsu Sainty
2014	Changchun Yatai
2016	Tianjin Teda
2018	Vojvodina
2019	Kunshan
Medal record
Men's Football
Representing Yugoslavia
Mediterranean Games
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dragomir "Dragan" Okuka (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгомир Драган Окука; born 2 April 1954) is a Serbian football coach and former player.^[1]

As a player, he was predominantly associated with his time with Velež Mostar where he won the 1981 Yugoslav Cup before joining Swedish club Örebro SK, the place his son, professional footballer Dražen, was born before ending his career soon after.

Starting his management career with

FK Bečej, Okuka would win his first coaching honours with FK Obilić when he won the 1997–98 Yugoslav league title with them.^[2] Since then he has achieved success with Polish club Legia Warsaw and managed the Serbia and Montenegro under-21 team to a fourth-place finish at the 2006 European Under-21 Championship

. He has also managed several other clubs.

Playing career

Okuka, born in

Swedish football Division 2 side Örebro SK for a short period before ending his career with Swedish lower league side Motala AIF.^[5]

He represented Yugoslavia at the 1979 Mediterranean Games and has played 4 matches scoring one goal for the Yugoslav U-21 team.^[3]

Coaching career

After he retired, he would move back to Yugoslavia and return to his first club Velež Mostar, where he took the position of general manager within the team by 1990. His time at the club was short-lived, and he would soon have to face challenges outside football when his life would be disrupted by the

FK Bečej and lead them to fourth within the 1994–95 league season.^[6] This would be enough for Okuka to lead the team to the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup, where the club were knocked out in the group stages; however, despite this, Okuka would soon attract the interests of FK Čukarički

, who he stayed with for one season.

Still regarded as one of the country's most promising coaches, he would join highly ambitious football club

Željko Ražnatović. While at the club he would employ a 3-5-2 formation as the club won the 1997–98 league title for the first time.^[7] Okuka would only stay with the club for one season, as Željko Ražnatović's ownership of the club came into question, and, despite having the chance to manage in the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, Okuka decided to join FK Budućnost Podgorica the following season.^[8]

After a short stint with FK Vojvodina in 2000, Okuka would move away from the Yugoslavian league and join top tier Polish side Legia Warsaw, where he would soon get them to play in a 3-4-1-2 formation and eventually aid them to the 2001–02 Ekstraklasa league title at the end of the season.^[9] The following season wasn't so happy for Okuka, as Legia Warsaw were knocked out early within the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League while also having an underwhelming league season, which saw him replaced by Dariusz Kubicki at the end of the season.

After spending eighteen months out of coaching, he was offered the chance to manage the

Serbia and Montenegro under-21 team, where he used a 4-4-2 formation to help guide the team to the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. At the tournament he would go on to guide the club to a semi-final position as the team narrowly missed the final in a penalty shoot-out against Ukraine.^[10] Once the tournament finished Okuka would return to club football with Polish side Wisła Kraków, who were looking for someone to improve upon their last season's result of second within the league. Already several games into the season expectations were still high despite the previous manager Dan Petrescu

being fired after a slow start; however, Okuka was not the manager to change the club's fortunes and was fired two months later after only eight games, with the club languishing in mid-table.

Okuka would move around Europe, first with Cypriot side

Qingdao Jonoon

just one point. The club decided not to extend his contract at the end of the season.