BOJAN HODAK

He led MyTeam to promotion to the Super League in their debut season, finishing runner-up in the Premier League in his first professional coaching experience.  He’s one of the country’s top qualified trainers, Croatian Bojan Hodak.
 
Bojan was born and raised in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), the second child in a family with strong military background.  His father and brother were both officers in the Army there.  In his early years he spent most time playing basketball and football, not preferring one from the other as he excelled in both.  There was neither a prominent figure that encouraged him, nor was there any history of sportsmen in his family, but Bojan carried on for fun, joining his friends.  However at the age of 16, his local club NK Trnje began paying him for his services and he duly gave up basketball to focus his time and energy in football.    

Bojan always played in defence since he was young, and as he put it, he was paid to ‘kill’ people.  He signed his first playing contract with NK Vrapce, upon leaving his hometown club after 4 seasons in 1990.  He spent 5 years in Vrapce, competing in the Yugoslavian Fifth Division, but following the war Vrapce were promoted to the Second Division in 1991, otherwise known as Division 1B then.  They again received promotion in 1993, playing in the top division.  Bojan’s leadership qualities saw him chosen as team captain at the young age of 21, and this did not miss the eye of First Division team, NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac who offered Bojan a place in 1995.  At Dragovaljac, Bojan chances were few and far between, on and off as he was engaged in a battle with Stjepan Tomas who played three World Cups for Croatia.  It was a mountaineous challenge for him to be left out in the cold but it did not last too long as National Service came a calling after six months at his new club.  While serving time for his country, Bojan played for NK Panikve for 6 months.    

At 26, on the recommendation and invitation by his friend Goran Paulic, who was S-League top scorer in 1997, Bojan decided to try his luck outside Croatia, departing for Singapore in 1997.  He was signed on by Balestier Central (now known as Balestier Khalsa) in the Singapore S-League top division.  Bojan spent a season there before leaving for Jurong FC, where he was there for four seasons.  During the 1999 season, there was a big break in the S-League and Bojan moved temporarily to Hong Kong Rangers in the Hong Kong League where he plied his trade there for 3 months.  Returning to Singapore following his sojourn in Hong Kong, Bojan was instrumental in Jurong’s run to the Singapore FA Cup final where they lost Armed Forces.  While Bojan was at Jurong, they consistently finished in the top quarter of the table, mainly under the guidance of player-coach V.Sundramoorthy, a former Singapore national.  Bojan was also the club vice-captain there and was voted 3 times in the Singapore S-League All Stars lineup. 

Family matters pressed for Bojan’s return to Croatia in 2002, with his father being ill, and during the time there, he went back to play for Trnje in the Second Division for six months.  It was a painful season as injuries began to take its toll on Bojan and he did not feel his usual self any longer.  He suffered fractures in the leg, and countless operations on his foot and decided to finally call it quits.  Reflecting on his time spent as a player in Yugoslavia (now Croatia), Singapore and Hong Kong, Bojan said “I had lots of fun wherever I played.  It was like a well paid hobby”. 

Unfortunately, Bojan’s father passed away and in that year, he received an offer by former Jurong FC teammate Paul Masefield, to take care of the latter’s new branch of a football school known as Little League Soccer in Malaysia.  Bojan arrived here assuming the post of head coach to the junior programme based in Klang Valley, specially curtailed to teaching the basics of the game to kids between 6 to 18 years old.  In the next two years with Little League, Bojan flew back and forth to Croatia, to earn his coaching badges and finally graduated with the UEFA ‘A’ License in 2004.  In his time with the programme, Bojan had fun with the kids and their parents, but he was always on the lookout for the right opportunity to be engaged in competitive football again.  In assisting the aspirations of the country, Bojan also arranged for the Malaysian Under-17 team to play in a 10 day tournament in Croatia in 2003.

In 2006, Serbegeth Singh recommended Bojan to come on board the MyTeam 1 reality TV show, as his assistant.  It was a programme to scour talent all over the country and Bojan immediately agreed to help the nation.  It was Bojan’s first journey to all states in Malaysia and he acknowledged that it was an important show in Malaysia, as the country lacked youth development.  On the back on the huge success of MyTeam 1, show producer Khairy Jamaluddin decided to form a side to compete in the Malaysian League and Bojan was given the nod of approval to take helm of MyTeam FC. 

In his first experience as coach to the new outfit, Bojan guided MyTeam to runner-up spot in the Premier League, automatically gaining promotion to the Super League.  It was a tremendous achievement for MyTeam FC in a run that saw them win 12 of their 20 matches, losing only thrice and drawing five matches.  It was a blistering start to the season for MyTeam who notched 6 wins and drew twice in their opening 8 matches before having that great run halted by Sabah in Kota Kinabalu where MyTeam lost 3-1.  The got off to a sluggish start after that defeat registering a win and a draw, before being brought back down to earth by the East Malaysians in KL.  MyTeam put on an impressive run of being undefeated for 6 matches, winning four of those, before Johor Pasing Gudang crashed into them, losing 3-1 away.  However, they secured promotion three weeks before the end of the League when a last minute winner by Hazmizan Kamaroddin, after being a goal down against Kelantan, guaranteed their passage to the Super League.  In the FA Cup, Bojan led MyTeam to the quarter-finals before bowing out to eventual champions Kedah.