Dušan Bajević

In his first game as head coach, Bajević's Bosnia made a good result after drawing against Italy in a 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A match on 4 September 2020. He suffered his first loss three days later, on 7 September, in another UEFA Nations League A match, this time against Poland. Bajević failed to qualify Bosnia for UEFA Euro 2020 after losing in a penalty shoot-out against Northern Ireland in the play-off semi finals on 8 October 2020. His contract ended following Bosnia's exit from the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A.

On 21 December 2019, seventy-one-year-old Bajević was named new head coach of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, with a contract until the end of UEFA Euro 2020 should he qualify through the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs before that. He extended his contract with the Bosnia and Herzegovina FA on 22 April 2020.

On 2 June 2012, Bajević agreed on a two-year contract with Greek Cup finalist Atromitos. He came to replace Giorgos Donis who resigned some days before. The Bosnian coach returned to Greece after a year and a half in order to manage the fifth Greek club in his career.

He resigned his post on 22 December 2012 following the third round elimination in the Greek Cup to second-tier Olympiakos Volou that progressed on away goals following the injury time equalizer by Añete. In the league, Atromitos was holding the 4th spot after 15 matches.

On 1 April 2011, after the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina was suspended for two months from all international competitions by FIFA and UEFA, Bajević became part of its "normalization committee", an interim committee created to run the Bosnian Football Federation, and whose main purpose was to have the Federation approve the changes required by FIFA for the suspension to be lifted.

On 7 August 2010 Bajević faced one of his worst moments in football. A section of AEK fans physically assaulted him following a friendly-game loss against to second division side Kallithea F.C. Bajević fell to the ground after being punched by the fans who surrounded the coach as he attempted to leave the pitch at the Gregoris Lambrakis Stadium following the 2–1 defeat.

Month-and-a-half later on 26 September 2010, Bajević resigned as head coach of AEK, following the 3–1 away defeat to Olympiakos Volou in the Greek Superleague.

On 13 October 2010, Bajević signed a contract with Cyprus's club, AC Omonia Nicosia, following the resignation of its predecessor Takis Lemonis. The managerial crew was also consisted of two training assistants, assistant coach Lysandros Georgamlis and physical fitness coach Dimitris Mpourouzikas. The first game with Bajević sitting on the club's bench was scheduled on Monday, 18 October against Olympiakos Nicosia.

On 21 November 2008, Bajević made his second return to AEK together with two other former players of AEK, Stelios Manolas in the position of the technical director and Lysandros Georgamlis as assistant coach.

His first game in charge was a 1–1 draw against OFI Crete in Crete on 23 November 2008. The first season in his third spell in-charge of "Dikefalos Aetos" brought ups and downs. AEK in the league, finished 4th, thus qualifying for the seasons annual play-offs in which AEK finished 2nd meaning qualification for next seasons Europa League. Bajević managed to get AEK to the Greek Cup Final where they came up short handed as they lost 16–15 on penalties to Olympiacos after the game finished 4–4 after extra time.

Bajević is famous for his nickname "Princ sa Neretve". On 10 September 2008, he received the Sport Association of the City of Mostar Award for his contribution in popularization and development of football and sport in general in his city. On 20 February 2019, Bajević was awarded the 2018 Bosnia and Herzegovina Award for sports for his contribution in popularization and development of football in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past years.

In contrast to European failures, the domestic form was satisfactory, as Red Star sat top of the league with 14 points to spare at the winter break. With the league restart, however, a 4–2 home loss on 24 February 2007 to eternal rival FK Partizan was followed on 27 February 2007 by an incident that saw angry fans smash the side window of Bajević's club-issued Toyota SUV with a brick while the vehicle was parked at the Marakana stadium parking lot during Bajević's guest appearance on the SOS kanal TV station.

The end of Bajević's stint with Red Star came in shocking fashion on 10 March 2007 during a league match versus FK Vojvodina. Red Star was down 0–2 at home, prompting its fans to start chanting "Dušan leave". Soon after the chant was picked up by the majority of the north stand where the club's most loyal supporters gather, Bajević decided to walk out on the team in the middle of the match, leaving the pitch in 70th minute. The match finished 0–3, shrinking Red Star's lead at the top of the table to only 6 points. Bajević's overall league record at the helm of Red Star during 2006–07 season was 14 league wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses.

On 7 September 2007, Bajević signed a 3-year contract with Aris Thessaloniki. During the 2007–08 season, when he was the head coach of Aris Thessaloniki, the team played superb football. Aris reached both a respectable 4th place in the Greek Super League and reached the Greek Cup final, where the team was beaten by Greek champions Olympiacos F.C. with the score of 2–0. On 1 July 2008, he decided to resign, allegedly because Aris president Labros Skordas demanded that he bench star defender Avraam Papadopoulos, after the latter rejected a contract extension.

On 25 May 2006, Bajević became the coach of the former European Cup champion Red Star Belgrade, brought in by club president Dragan Stojković as replacement for the recently departed Walter Zenga. The club's fans were optimistic about the appointment due to Bajević's reputation as an experienced coach with a good record in Greece.

Still, the antagonism with a section of AEK fans persisted. During a league match against Iraklis on 25 January 2004, Bajević decided he had enough abuse and with no prior warning left the bench and resigned while the game was still in the first half.

In 2004, he returned to Olympiacos, where he won the double again. Also, his team got very close to the second round of the Champions League by collecting ten points, but a 3–1 defeat against Liverpool F.C. in the last game eliminated them. Olympiacos went as far as the fourth round of the UEFA Cup. Despite these good results he resigned, mainly due to the pressure from Gate 7 fans who were not satisfied with the team's way of playing, although the majority of the fans were on his side.

In the summer of 2002, Bajević returned to AEK. Fans were bitterly divided among those who accepted him and those who couldn't forgive his defection to Olympiacos. In the 2002–03 Champions League, AEK became the first and only team to collect six ties out of six games in the group phase and ended up at third position. A notable match was the 3–3 draw against reigning European champions Real Madrid at the Nikos Goumas Stadium and another 2–2 draw against Real Madrid after coming back from 2–0 down at the Bernabeu in Madrid.

Bajević soon moved north to Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia, where he had a decent spell at financially strapped PAOK. During his stay at the club, he won the Greek Cup in 2001 (after a near-thirty year wait) beating Οlympiakos 2–4 in Athens in a game in which his team delivered very high quality football.

In 1999, Bajević led the team to a league-cup Double: in the league they ended 10 points ahead of AEK and 11 ahead of Panathinaikos; in the Cup, Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos 2–0. In the Champions League, the team finished top of the group, qualifying to the quarterfinals for the first (and only) time in their history and losing to Juventus 1–2 in Turin and drawing 1–1 at the Olympic Stadium.

The fans had great expectations for the 1999–00 season with the additions of Giovanni and Zlatko Zahovič to the squad, but Bajević's team only achieved a 3rd place in the Champions League group stage. The head coach was sacked on 11 November 1999, despite Olympiacos holding the top spot in the league at the time.

Under Bajević, Olympiacos won their first championship in 1997 after ten sterile years, finishing 12 points ahead of AEK Athens and 20 points ahead of Panathinaikos.

Also in 1997–98, Olympiacos participated for first time in the UEFA Champions League, finishing third in the group. In 1998 they were champions again after an important away win against Panathinaikos (0–2), finishing three points ahead of Panathinaikos.

In 1996, after eight successful seasons at AEK, Bajević moved to Olympiacos, bringing great hostility upon himself from the AEK supporters.

Bajević is of Bosnian Serb ethnicity. On 12 January 1995, he became a Greek citizen.

The club also had several decent campaigns in Europe under his management, reaching the last 16 in the following competitions: the European Cup (1990); the UEFA Cup (1992); the Champions League (1993) and (1995); and the Cup Winners' Cup (1996).

He took over AEK's managing position in 1988. During his first season in charge (1988–89), he guided the team to an unexpected championship after a ten-year drought, when he won it as a player. He then went on to win three consecutive championships (1992, 1993, 1994), one Greek Super Cup (1989), one League Cup (1990), one Pre-Mediterranean Cup (1991) and one Greek Cup (1996).

After ending his football career in 1983, Bajević took over the role as manager of Velež. He led the team to win the Yugoslav Cup in 1986 by defeating Dinamo Zagreb 3–1 in the final. The next season Velež finished the league in second spot and Bajević went to Greece to manage AEK Athens.

He came back to Velež in 1981 and stayed to 1983 before retiring. During his career, He was together with Slobodan Santrač the best goalscorer in the 1969–70 Yugoslav First League season, scoring 20 goals. Bajević is remembered as "The Prince of Neretva" and was part of the Velež three known as the "Mostar BMV" (Bajević, Marić and Vladić) during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

In the summer of 1977, the owner of AEK Athens, Loukas Barlos was convinced to acquire Bajević, despite the injury problems he was facing. He made his debut with the yellow-black jersey on 18 December 1977 in AEK's 1–0 home win against Kastoria. Alongside Thomas Mavros, he formed one of the greatest attacking duo in the club's history. He scored his first goal on 8 January 1978 in the 1-1 away draw against PAOK. In the new years eve of 1979 he scored 4 goals against Panserraikos in a 5-0 at home. With AEK he won 2 Greek Championships and 1 Greek Cup, including a domestic double in 1978, while he was the league's top scorer for the 1979–80 season with 25 goals.

Bajević made his debut for the Yugoslavia national team in an April 1970 friendly match against Austria, in which game he immediately scored a goal, and has earned a total of 37 caps, scoring 29 goals. He played in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, where he scored three goals against Zaire. His final international was a May 1977 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Romania.

Bajević started playing football in the infrastructure departments of the local Velež Mostar and developed into a leading figure of the team, becoming their captain. With the men's team of Velež he started playing in 1966, he played in almost 277 matches scoring 144 goals. He was voted "best athlete of Yugoslavia" and the press of the time gave him the nickname "Prince of Neretva" after the name of the river that runs through the city of Mostar. He was declared the top scorer of the league in the season 1969–70.

Dušan "Duško" Bajević (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Бајевић, pronounced [dǔʃan bǎjeʋitɕ]; Greek: Ντούσαν Μπάγεβιτς, Doúsan Báyevits; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. He is regarded as the most successful Bosnian football manager.