Dusan Bajevic

Thomas Mavros, Dusan Bajevic and Mimis Domazos with AEK in 1980

Lift a trophy with Olympiakos

Dušan Bajević (born 10 December 1948, in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia) is a Bosnian Serb football manager and former football player.

He is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the AEK team. He was a successful player, loved by AEK's fans. He joined the team in 1978 along with other great players of the era and won two championships and one cup title. He was also the league's top scorer during the season 1980-1981.

He took over AEK's managerial position in 1988. In his first year, he managed to lead the team to an unexpected championship title after ten years, since the rivals Olympiakos FC and Panathinaikos FC had teams that were considered superior. He also won three consecutive leagues (1992,1993,1994). In 1996, he moved to Olympiakos FC, bringing great fan hostility upon himself.

While he was Olympiakos' manager, Olympiakos won their first championship in 1997 after ten years, and became champions for three consecutive times. In 1999, Olympiakos won the Double and, for the first time in their history, the UEFA Champions League quarter finals.

He returned to AEK in 2004 and the fans were divided among those who accepted him and those who hated him. The latter part of the fans made his life a living hell. They even threatened his life if he didn't leave. On a match day against Iraklis, he had had enough and with no prior warning left the bench and resigned while the game was in its first half. As AEK coach, in 2002-03 AEK became the first team to collect six ties, without victories and defeats in the Champions League and got third position. A notable match was the 2-2 tie against Real Madrid in Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

In 2004, he returned to Olympiakos, where he won the double again. Also, his team was very close to passing to the second round of the Champions League collecting ten points, but however the defeat against Liverpool FC with 3-1 was the reason for not passing to the next round. Olympiakos went as far as the fourth round in UEFA Cup. Despite the good results, he was fired after the pressure of the fans because they were not satisfied with the team's way of playing.

May 25, 2006 Bajević became the coach of the former European Cup champion Red Star Belgrade.

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