One word describes Ivica Osim – a legend. It’s hard to find the right words to describe the stadium in Graz, where Sturm Graz and Mattersburg met in the 35th round of the Austrian Bundesliga. Former coach of Sturm, Ivica Osim, arrived at the stadium where fans prepared a grandiose welcoming and congratulated the 75th birthday to Strauss from Grbavica.
Ivan Osim celebrated his 75th birthday on the 6th of May, and fans of Sturm used the opportunity to congratulate his birthday during the visit to his former club where he was the coach from 1994 until 2002.
Video of this welcoming has been published on the official Facebook page of Sturm. Comments on this publication show that Sturm will never forget the legacy of Ivica Osim to this club.
“What Osim did was impossible,” “No one from the club has never done what he did “, “I cannot stop crying, this is the greatest coach that we ever had,” are only some of the comments, and on a large fan banner was written: “Happy birthday to the legend. We love you Ivan.”
Osim won the league with Sturm twice (1998, 1999), one time the Cup (1999) and twice Super Cup (1998, 1999). Before Osim’s arrival to the club, Sturm was the second at the end of the season once and had never won the title of champion of Austria.
The thing that will be specially remembered are performances of Sturm in the Champions League. Under the guidance of Osim, the club played three consecutive seasons in the group phase of the elite competition (1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01). In the third season, they won first place in the group in front of Galatasaray, Glasgow Rangers and Monaco. Later, they dropped in the second phase of the competition by winning third place behind Manchester United and Valencia.
Take a look at the VIDEO.
(Source: O. T./Klix.ba)
