Slaven Bilic on managing in Saudi Arabia, Luka Modric's brilliance and his love for West Ham

Croatian manager speaks to The National about his stint at Al Fateh and football culture in the kingdom

Slaven Bilic coached Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League up until recently. Getty Images

Former Croatia international Slaven Bilic has had a fascinating journey. He played and managed in England's Premier League and also coached in Saudi Arabia over two spells, plus in Moscow, Beijing and Istanbul.

Bilic, who played for West Ham United and Everton, among others, has travelled across the globe in the latter part of his career as a coach, which included a stint with Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad in 2018/19.

Recently, he left Saudi Pro League side Al Fateh by mutual agreement and is currently enjoying time in his home city of Split.

The National spoke to Bilic, 56, about his journey in football, experience in the kingdom and more.

What are you doing now?

I was in Saudi last season. I liked it and I had a two-year contract but the situation was that not all the clubs have enough budget to improve the team. We did well last season, I was not at a big club but we finished seventh, just behind those that have the big money.

I found out pre-season that we wouldn’t have more money to invest in the team and I decided that it wouldn’t be good to stay another year. So I quit and now I’m back home. It has been a long time since I spent a few months with the family in my hometown.

I’m watching football and travelling. I went to see my colleague Ivan Juric who is also from Split. He’s managing Roma and I watched them play Inter. I’m imagining the future and being ready for when an opportunity comes.

What was it like at Al Fateh?

You could have eight foreign players at every club in Saudi. Now, you have 10, but two must be under 22. I had good players, very good. I learnt that during my first spell in Saudi after the 2018 World Cup finals.

Now, you come up against sides who have five or six foreign players but because you don’t know their names, you might first think that they are not great. But they are very good players.

It’s interesting. Say you are an agent for South American players. You might place two or three players in Portugal at a lower club and a couple in Saudi. If the boys do well in Portugal then they end up at Sporting or Porto, and then maybe the Premier League.

But it’s less likely to happen via Saudi, despite the players being similar. I’m not talking about players like Vinicius or Rodri level, but good players. I managed them, I know their level. I asked them why they don’t go to Europe and they say that they could go to a smaller club in Italy but that they’re better off staying in Saudi.

What I’m saying is that there are some really good players who you’ve never heard of in Saudi. Everyone knows the big names – and the change there is that the Saudi league is now getting players in their prime like Ruben Neves or [Aymeric] Laporte, or [Marcelo] Brozovic. It’s good football.

What’s the Saudi fan culture like, the crowds too?

It varies. A game between two smaller clubs might only attract 3-4,000, but the big stadiums are packed against bigger opponents. The four biggest clubs are Hilal, who are like the Real Madrid of Asia, Al Nassr where Cristiano Ronaldo is, Al Ittihad where [Karim] Benzema is and Al Ahli where [Roberto] Firmino and Ivan Toney went. Then Shabab are also big. Those clubs have fans all over Saudi. I was at Fateh and everyone in the city likes Fateh, but they were mostly fans of the biggest clubs.

Saudis love football; they have a rich football culture. It’s not like a project. In China or maybe the United States they had to find a way to make people like football. In Saudi it’s different, the culture has been there for 70 years. They love football.

What were your best moments?

We [Al Fateh] finished seventh, which is a good success for us. The best result was beating Al Ahli 5-1 last year at home. That was a big shock for the whole country. They had [Edouard] Mendy from Chelsea in goal, [Franck] Kessie from Milan in midfield, Riyad Mahrez on the right, Firmino up front and Allan Saint-Maximin on the left wing.

They had top players – what a game we had. It’s good football. It’s not Premier League but you almost face more challenges than in the Premier League. Why? In the Premier League you have balanced teams, all the players are good enough to face whoever.

In Saudi you might have a world-class winger but your right-back might be well short of that standard. He’ll be good, but because you have to have three domestic players they tend to be in positions like full-back. So you have to find a way for your right-back not to be exposed to Mahrez for 90 minutes one against one.

You managed in Saudi before the mega money signings. What have you noticed different about the league now?

It was easier before. There were good players but not Neymar, Ronaldo, Mahrez and Benzema. Or let’s look at [Aleksandar] Mitrovic, who was in the Premier League with Fulham. If Fulham played Liverpool then they would be underdogs but Liverpool also have to be wary of him, even [Virgil] Van Dijk. Because if you let crosses come in then Mitrovic will score.

Of the managers you’ve worked with, who influenced you most?

They may not be as big as Fabio Capello, Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson, but I’ve worked with so many great coaches: Luka Peruzovic, Winfried Schafer, Harry Redknapp, Walter Smith, Miroslav Blazevic ... they all helped me. When I was playing, I hadn’t thought of being a manager. Since then, I’ve tried to think of all the things that they do well, and do the same.

What next for you?

I’m at a good age, maybe the best age. I’m full of energy yet experienced. I’d like to coach again in Europe. After my first spell at Saudi I was at West Brom, a club with a great history, a working-class club, and we got promoted in our first season. Who knows what happens next, but I still have that passion, I still love it. There are times when you’re a manager when you don’t [love it]. When you have agents and players’ wives telling you how to do your job, but overall I love it.

What were your high and low moments of your playing and managerial career?

I had a good career. I started at Hajduk Split in what was Yugoslavia, then the war started and I played in Croatia – still at Hajduk. We won important trophies.

The football world wasn’t as small then. If you were a good player in a domestic league like Croatia, it wasn’t guaranteed that you’d end up in one of the biggest European leagues. In the 90s, only three foreign players were allowed to play in teams – so you had to be better than the players already there. Nobody bought a foreign player to be a squad player.

Centre-backs were valued though because you stopped the goals; it’s an important position. I went to Germany, a big league, and to a good club, Karlsruhe. We had a team, crowd and coach. We went to the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup. I liked it there.

Then I went to West Ham, the best move I made. I had a bond with the fans, this club is in my heart. It’s a special club for many reasons, like 1966. And also the film Green Street, people know it and they associate West Ham with it. It’s seen as a cool club. I went to Everton and signed for five years in a big transfer, the highest fee paid for a defender, but I got injured after my first year. I had a fracture in my hip.

A shame because Everton and Liverpool felt like being in a city with Milan and Inter. I didn’t win trophies in England as a player but I did win a medal for the 1998 World Cup, when Croatia finished third and won bronze.

You started at Hajduk - what’s it’s like to manage your hometown team?

A crazy privilege with unbelievable – almost personal – pressure. Thankfully there was no social media then, you didn’t read all that. There would be articles where a journalist would say if you were good or bad.

After Euro 2004 I received a call from the chairman of the Croatian FA who asked if I’d take control of the Under-21s. We had two good seasons, then, after the 2006 World Cup, I was asked to coach Croatia. That was a surprise to me. I was well known but it was a major thing.

I was only 37 when I was appointed, but I was in charge for six years. You have your ups and downs but I enjoyed it. We had England and Russia in our first qualification group [in Euro 2008 qualifiers] but we beat England home and away. When a small country beats a giant it’s amazing. I had some great players and two of them are still playing now: Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic, who is back at Hajduk Split.

Tell us more ...

They’re both not only great football players but great people. People don’t realise that to become great in everything you have to have the whole package. Luka was a young player for me in 2004 in the Under-21s. He was born in 1985 and I was using players born in 1983. Most of them are now becoming coaches, but two years was a big difference at that age, yet we found straight away that he was the man on and off the pitch.

He’s not a strong lad, but he’s got charisma and he liked to take responsibility on the pitch, even as a young player. Luka loves football. The debate when he was younger was about whether he was a number 8, 10 or 6. And people said that if you put him as a 10 then you’ll miss him because he likes the ball, he likes to help other players.

But if you put him as a 6 in a 4-4-2 then he’s too far from goal and he can’t make an assist. Always debates about him because he could do everything, but what was best for the team? For me, it was better when he was always close to the ball.

When Luka made a mistake in training he wasn’t happy. I felt that he wanted to punish himself after making a single mistake. I saw other great players make a mistake in games and it didn’t matter. Not Luka. Every ball matters. He’s like a tennis player, every single point matters. That’s why you would see Luka going up in the air against Yaya Toure or Rodri, guys who are much taller than him, and he makes it difficult for them and sometimes wins the challenge. He’s so committed.

Three years ago, I went to Madrid to see him play against Chelsea. I took my son. Chelsea were leading 1-0 and then 2-0, then Luka made an assist to Rodrygo and Madrid went through. I went to see Luka for a meal the next day with my son and my agent. His head was still in the game from the night before.

My son asked him whether Madrid could win the league. It was between them and Barcelona and there were 10 games to go. Luca reeled off a list of all Madrid’s opponents. Then he said all of Barcelona’s opponents, in order. He knew everything.

“And then,” Luca finished, “if we beat Sevilla at home with two games to go we’ll be the champions.” He knew every detail. He’s so committed.

You have top players who don’t watch games and don’t know who they are about to play. It’s almost cool and popular to say that you’re not interested in football. That reminds me when I was Besiktas. We were in a group with three other teams. Three games home and away.

Spurs, Partizan and Asteras, a Greek side. We played Greek side. I had a conversation with a player, a fantastic player to motivate him before the game. I said: ‘Look if we win tomorrow and Spurs lose then we are through’. The player asked me who Spurs were playing.

I couldn’t believe it and said: ‘We have four teams in a group. We are two of them tomorrow. Spurs is the other. Are you really telling me you don’t know who the other team is?’ He was the opposite of Modric, the football addict with six Champions League trophies who still studies every fixture. That commitment is a difference.

There’s another anecdote from that meal. Man City were playing Atletico that night and Manuel Estiarte of City came up to Luca and said "that wonderful pass you made to Rodrygo last night … Johan [Cruyff] will be applauding from heaven about that pass".

Croatia is a country of four million. It punches well above its weight, yet so do the fans

The Croatian fans travel in huge numbers and can be crazy. It’s the southern European thing – or how I’d imagine South America to be. I went to see one of my friends managing in Rome. It’s difficult for the players to stroll around the town like you could in England. England is not the loudest. You don’t have the flags and the fires and the smoke bombs. It’s not hostile like it is in Turkey.

One of the best atmospheres I’ve experienced was at Atletico Madrid. But England is also great. The fans are not like in cages like where it’s hostile. In England you are so close and you can see the fans’ heads. They have the right balance in England and as a manager there you have a feeling that the whole world is watching you. The Premier League feels global. You speak to TV companies from around the world after the game, yet you can still have a life when you work in England.

I loved it at West Ham but I was also the manager when we had the last season at Upton Park. It was not easy to make the step to the new stadium. No away team wanted to go to Upton Park. It was hostile, there was the Chicken Run by the side of the pitch where the fans were so close. The journey into the stadium was tight, the fans were close. At the new stadium I saw away players relax. They wanted to play there, they couldn’t wait for the game to start on that huge stage. I liked that stage too, but I missed Upton Park.