Radojko Avramović

Radojko "Raddy" Avramović (Serbian Cyrillic: Радојко Аврамовић; born 29 November 1949) is a Serbian retired football coach and player. A goalkeeper, Avramović most notably played for Croatian club Rijeka and English club Notts County as well as internationally for Yugoslavia. During his managerial career, Avramović was most notably a long-term manager of Singapore national team, being widely regarded as the most successful coach leading Singapore. He also briefly managed Myanmar and Kuwait national teams.

Avramović discontinued his law studies two years into university to become a footballer. He began his playing career with Borac Čačak in the Yugoslav Second League in 1968. He signed for Yugoslav First League club Rijeka in 1975. As a 1977–78 Yugoslav Cup winner with Rijeka, he played in the 1978–79 Cup Winners' Cup. He won his only international cap with Yugoslavia in a Balkan Cup match against Greece on 15 November 1978. He was scouted by Notts County manager Jimmy Sirrel, who signed him for a club record £200,000 in 1979 and would later regard Avramović as one of his best players. He contributed with 16 clean sheets as the club was promoted to the First Division in 1981 in their return to the top flight after 54 years. He made a total of 167 appearances for Notts County before moving to Coventry City for the 1983–84 season. In 1984, he returned to Yugoslavia with OFK Belgrade where he played his final season, helping them to the Second League East Division title before retiring as a player at the age of 35.

Avramović was placed in charge of Oman's age group teams from 1993 to 1998. In August 1998, he was appointed as assistant coach to Kuwait, and as coach of their Olympic squad a year later. He guided the under-23 team through the Asian qualifiers to the 2000 Summer Olympics. Following the departure of Berti Vogts in February 2002, Avramović took over as national coach of Kuwait. He led the senior team to their first West Asian Games title in April, and the under-23 team to the quarter-finals of the 2002 Asian Games in October, which they lost 1–0 to eventual silver medalists Iran. His contract was however terminated in December after a poor performance at the 2002 Arab Nations Cup. He led Oman outfit Muscat Club to the 2002-03 Omani League title during a six-month stint from February 2003. In July 2003, Avramović was unveiled as coach of the Singapore national team. He led them to their first international title in the 2004 ASEAN Football Championship, completing a hat-trick of tournament wins with further triumphs in 2007 and 2012. After a decade in Singapore, Avramović stood down as national coach in December 2012. In February 2014, he was appointed as coach of the Myanmar national team; he stepped down from the position in 2015. He returned to Kuwait for brief spells with Al Tadhmon SC and the Kuwait national team in 2017 and 2018, respectively, until returning to Singapore in 2019 to manage Home United. He was forced to retire early into his term due to a serious illness.