In Profile: Ivan Jurić
Ivan Jurić’s arrival as Southampton’s new First Team Manager marks the Croatian’s first coaching role outside of Italy, the country that has shaped so much of his distinguished career in football.
An international player, Jurić was an elegant left-footed midfielder whose five senior caps all came in 2009 under former Premier League boss Slaven Bilić.
Born in Split, he represented home city club Hajduk before moving to Spain, where he played for Sevilla, and Italy, where he settled after joining Serie B side Crotone in 2001.
It was there that Jurić first came into contact with his biggest coaching influence, Gian Piero Gasperini. After winning promotion together at Crotone, back to Serie B, the pair joined forces once more when Gasperini signed Jurić for Genoa in 2006; again promotion followed in the coach’s first season, allowing Jurić to fulfil his dream of playing in Serie A.
Ivan Jurić with Gian Piero Gasperini (Photo: Getty Images)
A key player in the team, vice-captain Jurić helped Genoa achieve three successive top-half finishes for the first time since the War, contributing 10 assists in 2008/09, many of them for star striker Diego Milito, as Gasperini’s men finished fifth to qualify for Europe.
A year later, whilst Milito was scoring both goals for José Mourinho’s Inter in the Champions League final, Jurić announced his retirement, aged 34, stating his ambition to go into coaching.
Initially staying at Genoa to work as a youth team coach, Jurić later assisted Gasperini at Inter, albeit briefly, and Palermo.
Taking his first steps in management at Mantova in 2014, Jurić returned to Crotone, the first Italian club he played for, achieving legendary status as he led the unfashionable underdogs to promotion to Serie A for the first time in the club’s history.
Ivan Jurić made an instant impact in his coaching career (Photo: Getty Images)
That summer, he returned for the first of three short stints in charge of Genoa, but it is his work at Hellas Verona (two seasons) and Torino (three seasons) that stands out, adding up to more than 200 games between the two jobs.
At both clubs he developed a reputation as a manager able to maximise modest resources, implementing a high-intensity pressing approach built on a strong defensive foundation.
With Hellas Verona, newly promoted at the time of his arrival in 2019, he led the team to back-to-back top-half finishes. In both seasons the club defied the odds to be in contention for European places, only to run out of steam in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Torino were relegation strugglers before the appointment of Jurić, who again proved himself to be a steady hand in offering stability, this time maintaining positive results through the spring. In his five seasons in charge of Hellas Verona and Torino, he finished ninth or 10th every year.
Ivan Jurić during his time in charge of Torino (Photo: Getty Images)
That ability to outperform his resources attracted the advances of Roma, but Jurić, like club legend Daniele De Rossi before him, was not afforded enough time to make his mark, something referenced by his mentor.
“It’s a very explosive situation, born after De Rossi’s dismissal,” Gasperini, a well-respected figure in Italian football, observed. “He took on a very hot potato. Ivan is a good coach, he knows how to work. If he is supported, he can produce results.”
Gasperini is a two-time Serie A Coach of the Year these days, most recently shortlisted for the Johan Cruyff Award at the Ballon d’Or. His Atalanta side were the only team to defeat all-conquering Bayer Leverkusen last season, doing so in the Europa League final to secure a first major trophy since 1963.
As far as coaching influences go, Jurić has a good one, as well as proving himself to be a specialist in turning underdogs into competitive top-flight teams in the face of fierce competition.