Radomir Antić (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Антић, pronounced [rǎdomiːr âːntitɕ]; 22 November 1948 – 6 April 2020) was a Serbian professional football manager and player.
Following a 17-year playing career as a defender, most of which he spent playing at Partizan, with whom he won the Yugoslav First League, Antić moved into coaching.
He was one of only two men to have managed both Barcelona and Real Madrid, long-time bitter rivals (the other one is Enrique Fernández Viola). With Atlético Madrid, Antić won the double, conquering both La Liga and the Copa del Rey in the 1995–96 season. He is the only man to have coached Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid.
Antić was born in Žitište to a Serb family (father Jovo Antić from the Janj area near Šipovo and mother Milka Brkić from the Grmeč region) that had settled in the small Banat town shortly before his birth. Born as the second son in the family, Radomir had an older brother Dragomir, two years his senior. The newborn was named after his maternal uncle Radomir "Rade" Brkić, a notable World War II Partisan guerrilla fighter who, in 1953, would be awarded the Order of the People's Hero gallantry medal for the engagement.
During the mid-1950s, when young Radomir was six years old, the family moved to Titovo Užice, a city where Antić grew up and considered to be his hometown. After the family's arrival to Titovo Užice, another child, daughter Mira, was born.
Antić started his playing career with Sloboda Titovo Užice (1967–1970) and then moved to the club where he would play most of his career, Partizan (1970–1977). With Partizan, he won the national Championship in 1976.
In the summer of 1977, Antić signed for Fenerbahçe in Turkey. He spent one season in Istanbul before moving to the Spanish La Liga, where he played for Real Zaragoza.
In 1980, Antić moved on to Luton Town, a team in England's Second Division (which was then the second tier). Known in England as "Raddy", he helped Luton to the Second Division title in 1982, and stayed with the club for two seasons in the top division before leaving in 1984. At the end of the 1982–83 season, he played a key role in saving Luton from relegation, scoring a winning goal four minutes from time in the final League match of the season, away against Manchester City. City, the home team, were themselves relegated as a result. At full-time, Luton manager David Pleat ran across the pitch, hopping and waving his arms wildly in celebration.
Already in his 30s when he arrived at Luton, Antić already looked to coaching as a career option once his playing days are finished. While an active player in England, he enrolled in and completed the coaching college in Belgrade, Viša trenerska škola. In that regard, he often cites Pleat as an influence on his later coaching style.
After helping save Luton's First Division status, Antić spent one more season at Kenilworth Road before retiring at age 36.
Antić made one appearance for the Yugoslavia national team, appearing as a substitute in the 80th minute for injured Franjo Vladić (who himself came on as a sub for Vladimir Petrović Pižon some 18 minutes prior) in a friendly against Hungary on 26 September 1973 in Belgrade.
After finishing his playing career at age 36, Antić started a career in coaching as an assistant with Partizan (1985–87), working under head coach Nenad Bjeković. Partizan won the 1985–86 league title amid a match-fixing controversy. They also won the 1986–87 league.
In early July 1987, Fahrudin Jusufi was brought in as the new head coach and initially Antić continued his assistant role. For the pre-season training ahead of the 1987–88 season, the team went abroad where Jusufi and Antić got into a row over player personnel issues that resulted in Antić being essentially demoted to the position of Partizan under-16 youth team (cadet squad) coach.
Antić's first head coaching position was with Real Zaragoza. In addition to formerly playing for the club, his appointment owed a lot to being recommended for the job by countryman Vujadin Boškov, who had been successfully leading the Italian side Sampdoria at the time while also enjoying a lot of clout in Spain having led Zaragoza (coached Antić there for two years) and other La Liga clubs during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The squad was a fairly modest one without any really big names; the most notable players being the aging Spanish international midfielder Juan Señor and forward Miguel Pardeza who came up through Real Madrid's youth system as part of La Quinta del Buitre generation. The biggest summer signing was twenty-six-year-old striker Nasko Sirakov from Levski Sofia who had joined shortly before Antić's arrival. The club also had some young assets: a pair of twenty-two-year-olds Francisco Villarroya and Juan Vizcaíno who were well on their way to becoming future Spanish internationals as well as eccentric Paraguayan goalie José Luis Chilavert who came to the club from Argentina's San Lorenzo the same summer Antić did. Antić's made his La Liga coaching debut on 4 September 1988 against Valencia, a 0–0 draw. The initial period was rough, with the club hovering in and around the relegation zone, followed by a period of slight improvement, but still stuck in the lower half of the table. The sudden and somewhat unexpected breakthrough came during last eight league matches of the season as Antić's Zaragoza started posting win after win in a rapid climb up the table, finishing the season in fifth place, thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup.
He ended up spending two full seasons (1988–1990) managing a club he also turned out for as a player.
Real Madrid came calling in late March 1991 and Antić took over from club legend Alfredo Di Stéfano following los Merengues' elimination from the European Cup by Oleg Romantsev's Spartak Moscow at the quarter-final stage. Di Stéfano had been on thin ice since the 1–0 league defeat in mid-March away to mid-table Logroñés (Real Madrid's third league loss in a row), but it was the 1–3 return leg quarter-final European Cup home loss against the Russians at the Santiago Bernabéu on 20 March 1991 that served as the last straw that prompted Di Stéfano's removal. In La Liga, at the time, after 26 matches, the club occupied the seventh position in the standings.
Used to winning major trophies, the royal club was in turmoil with Antić coming in as their third head coach of the season after John Toshack and Di Stéfano.