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Former Austria team boss Otto Baric died at the age of 87. As the Croatian Football Federation announced on Sunday, the Croatian died in Zagreb.
Baric coached the Austrian national team from April 1999 to November 2001, and coached his home country from 2002 to 2004. In the Austrian league, he won the championship title seven times with Wacker Innsbruck, SK Rapid and SV Salzburg.
Otto Baric twice in the final of the European Cup
With Vienna and Salzburg, “Otto Maximal” was twice in a final of the European Cup. In 1985 he lost to Rapid in the Cup Winners’ Cup final, with Salzburg lost in the 1994 UEFA Cup final. Baric’s last engagement as head coach was as manager of the Albanian national team, which ended in 2007.
Soccer scene molded over 30 years ago
Otto Baric has shaped the Austrian soccer scene for some 30 years. With wisdom, charisma and legendary sagas. “Otto Maximal”, named for his inflationary use of the superlative, was champion seven times with three different teams in the upper house and was twice in the European Cup finals with Rapid (1985) and Austria Salzburg (1994). The Croatian died on Saturday at the age of 87.
European Cup successes with Austria Salzburg
Baric, who was born as a guest worker at the Eisenkappel in Carinthia but grew up in Zagreb, was denied great success as an active person. As a coach, he should more than make up for it. The Croatian appeared in Austria for the first time in 1970 and soon became champion with Wacker Innsbruck. That was the start of a highly prestigious career in the national Bundesliga, which was interrupted by guest appearances in Croatia, Germany and Turkey and the last highlights were the grandiose European Cup successes with Austria Salzburg.
1994 UEFA Cup final against Inter Milan
Salzburgs will not forget their advance to the 1994 UEFA Cup final against Inter Milan, the “black” series of the European Cup of Austrian clubs against DFB clubs (after 17 failed attempts), which ended on the road to the Eintracht Frankfurt and Karlsruhe. Champions League 1994/95, in which two draws were snatched from the subsequent triumph of Ajax Amsterdam and in which AC Milan prevented them from reaching the quarter-finals until the last match of the group stage.
He also had success with Rapid and Wacker Innsbruck
With Rapid Baric he had already reached the final of the European Cup of cup champions in Rotterdam against Everton (1: 3) in 1985. His business card of success in Austria includes Wacker Innsbruck (1971, 1972), Rapid (1983, 1987, 1988) and Salzburg (1994, 1995) seven championship titles, as well as two doubles and four cups (all with Rapid). At LASK, however, Baric was out of luck. In 1974 President Rudolf Trauner fired him and in January 1999 he pulled the rope himself after the arrest of club boss Wolfgang Rieger.
ÖFB also trusts Otto Baric
In 1999, the ÖFB team also relied on the qualities of the baricos, but was not successful. After 22 matches and lost World Cup qualification, he made room for Hans Krankl and took over, for the last time in Austria, again in the spring of 2002, Salzburg Austria. Things improved with his home country, which he led the 2004 European Championship, but was eliminated in the group stage. Baric had his last engagement as a coach in 2006 and 2007 with the Albanian national team.
“Otto Maximum” as a self-marketer
Austrian fans will remember Baric above all for his interviews. In addition to being an expert in soccer, he also did his own marketing. His almost lovingly cared “maximum” (“I need national players with the highest will and highest ambition”) is slowly being forgotten, but became a household word among domestic fans in the 1980s and 1990s.
Even after retiring to private life, Baric held a strong opinion and remained true to football as a welcome and heard guest in the Croatian and Austrian media. His concise comments didn’t always hit the nerve of the moment. The discriminatory comment in a Croatian magazine that he did not want homosexuals on his team earned him a fine in 2007.
