THE FUSE

A Bundesliga legend wanted to sign Veljko Paunovic so badly that he risked a rift with his superiors. It did not pay off.

Ask Serbia national team coach Veljko Paunovic about January 2005 and he would probably make a quick exit. Mention Hannover 96 and he is unlikely to stick around either.

Towards the end of the winter transfer window in the 2004/05 season, the Paunovic situation at the Bundesliga club from Lower Saxony came to a head. Hannover, back in the top flight for a third year after a lengthy absence, were having a good season under Ewald Lienen. At the end of January 2005, after 19 matchdays, they sat sixth and were heading towards European qualification.

Hannover had no pressing need to add to the squad. Ilja Kaenzig, now managing director of VfL Bochum and Hannover's manager at the time, saw no point in winter transfers anyway. In his view, they rarely added value, so he ruled out winter signings at 96. Martin Kind, then chairman of the supervisory board, agreed, but Lienen persuaded him otherwise.

Ewald Lienen remembered Veljko Paunovic at Hannover

Lienen, the legendary coach who also had spells at Hansa Rostock, 1. FC Köln and FC St. Pauli, wanted a striker who would guarantee goals. Thomas Christiansen, Daniel Stendel, Roman Wallner, Leandro and Jiri Kaufmann gave 96 plenty of options up front, but none scored consistently. By the end of the season, Stendel and playmaker Jiri Stajner would be their leading league scorers with just six goals each.

That brought Paunovic to Lienen's mind. He knew the then 27-year-old striker from the 2002/03 season, when he had coached him at Spanish second-division side CD Teneriffa and seen his goalscoring qualities up close. Kaenzig pointed to the "well-functioning team structure" and did not want to jeopardise it, especially with the club in a promising league position. Lienen pushed the transfer through anyway. Shortly before the window closed, 96 announced Paunovic's arrival.

"I know how controversial it was. But I'll give everything to convince the other side that Ewald Lienen and I were right," said the Serb, who arrived from Atletico Madrid. Paunovic had not been a regular for the Colchoneros, who were going through a difficult period and were far from the consistent top team they are in Spain's LaLiga nowadays. He had not scored in ten appearances in the first half of the season. Even without his general aversion to winter signings, Kaenzig had reason to be sceptical.

Paunovic would have become 96's highest earner

"The club has no financial risk. I'll prove that by the summer," Paunovic said on his arrival. For his first half-year at 96, until summer 2005, he was reportedly due to earn a comparatively modest €15,000 a month. Atletico had also terminated his contract because of the Rojiblancos' financial problems, so 96 owed no transfer fee. But Paunovic signed an 18-month deal until summer 2006, with an option for another year. From the start of the 2005/06 season, he was due to become Hannover's highest earner on around €1 million a year.

Expectations were high. Fellow Serb Mladen Krstajic, then a centre-back at Schalke 04, was full of praise: "He's a superb player. Excellent on the ball, really strong in the air, quick enough." S04 were still pushing Bayern Munich hard at the top of the Bundesliga and finished the season as runners-up. They apparently wanted Paunovic too, at least according to Krstajic: "It's a shame. He would have strengthened us as well."

Would Paunovic have delivered at Schalke? At Hannover, amid the tensions over his arrival, he failed to find his feet. "We've only been together four days, so not everything can click yet," Paunovic said after an uneven Bundesliga debut in early February 2005, a 3-1 home defeat by Borussia Dortmund. Lienen put him straight into the starting line-up as the lone striker, but the newcomer failed to impress.

"I need more time so the other players understand what I do, and I understand what they do," Paunovic said, asking for patience. Two more disappointing starts followed, in a 0-0 draw at Freiburg and a 4-1 home defeat by Werder Bremen. Spring 2005 approached, and Paunovic still had no impact on 96's play.

Discontent over Paunovic gradually grew at Hannover

Lienen defended his player by comparing him with one of the world's best strikers, the 2004 Ballon d'Or winner: "It was clear from the outset that he isn't another Andriy Shevchenko. We have to give him time, then he'll still be a great help to us."

In mid-March 2005, Paunovic finally helped Hannover, setting up the winner in a 2-1 home victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach. It proved to be the last of his seven appearances in a 96 shirt. Shortly afterwards, he criticised the club's leadership in an interview with kicker, bringing his brief spell in Germany to an end.

"I knew they didn't know me. I didn't know they were against me. Or that they would use me in a conflict with the coach," Paunovic said, taking aim at Kaenzig and Kind. "For a club to function, people mustn't work against each other. Anyone who doesn't understand that harms the club."

Paunovic expressly spared Lienen from his criticism and stressed: "The conflict over me harms everyone. The team too. Otherwise we could have played better, and perhaps I could have as well. But I didn't cause the conflict." He had reportedly already been considering a swift departure within the squad. Fellow Serb and midfield organiser Nebojsa Krupnikovic was also set to leave in summer 2005, giving Paunovic another reason not to stay in Hannover much longer.

Veljko Paunovic at Hannover 96: Just seven appearances, but plenty of bridges burned

Just two months after Lienen brought him in against the wishes of the club's bosses, Paunovic's spell at 96 was over. Hannover had at least arranged an agreement to terminate his contract in summer 2005 when he signed it, sparing the club further costs from the transfer flop. Had he stayed, the current Serbia coach would have become their highest earner.

Instead, Paunovic returned to the Spanish capital in summer 2005 and signed for Madrid suburban club FC Getafe. After a brief return to hometown club Partizan Belgrade, he initially retired at the end of 2008, aged just 31. He then spent another six months with Philadelphia Union in MLS in 2011 before finally ending his career in early 2012.

Coaching came next. Paunovic first took charge of Serbia's under-18 national team before moving up to the under-20s in 2014. In summer 2015, he led a side featuring future stars Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Andrija Zivkovic, Nemanja Maksimovic and Milos Veljkovic to the Under-20 World Cup title. The Serbs beat Brazil 2-1 after extra time in the final.

Schweinsteiger compared Paunovic to Guardiola

A few months later, Paunovic took charge of MLS club Chicago Fire, where he coached Bastian Schweinsteiger, among others. He worked hard to bring in the 2014 World Cup winner, visiting him in Manchester in 2016 during his time at United. "I was really impressed," the Bayern Munich legend told the New York Times of the Serb. Schweinsteiger compared him with one of the greatest coaches of all time, under whom he had played at Bayern: "We had a very good conversation. He reminds me of Pep Guardiola in many ways. In how he wants his team to play and in his ideas about the game," Schweinsteiger said of Paunovic.

Paunovic stayed in Chicago until the end of 2019, then coached in England (FC Reading), Mexico (Deportivo Guadalajara and Tigres UANL) and Spain (Real Oviedo). At the end of October 2025, he took over the Serbia national team from former playmaking icon Dragan Stojkovic, when failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup was almost impossible to avoid.

An expected 2-0 defeat in England on Paunovic's debut ended the World Cup dream. Albania, in second place and a play-off spot, were definitively out of reach. Paunovic now had to build a young, competitive side capable of qualifying for major tournaments again.

Results have not favoured him so far. In ten matches, Serbia have managed only two narrow 2-1 wins, against Latvia and Saudi Arabia. They lost the other eight, including all four Nations League appearances to date.

After the 2-0 defeat by the Germany team in Munich in early October, Paunovic stressed that the result had been expected, especially against opponents such as Germany and the Netherlands. "We are Serbia, a small country, and it takes time to establish a system," he snapped in response to a reporter's question critical of the disappointing results. "Everyone close to us knows we're working to turn the bad mood around," he said, emphasising that he had taken over the team in a difficult situation. "We've brought back our leaders, added talented players and are building a new system. But that takes time."

Can Paunovic get Serbian football back on track?

Serbia had little chance in Germany, but showed promise in their two narrow 2-1 defeats by the Netherlands, home and away, and against a strong Greece side. Paunovic has brought former Ajax star Dusan Tadic, now 37 and at NEC Nijmegen, back into the fold after more than two years away. Milinkovic-Savic, one of his heroes from the Under-20 World Cup, is also playing for Serbia again under Paunovic, who is relying on other experienced players such as Zivkovic, Maksimovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Big names in their mid-20s such as centre-back Strahinja Pavlovic (AC Milan) and goalscorer Dusan Vlahovic (Besiktas) are expected to play leading roles in Serbian football's future. Paunovic also wants to develop top talents such as Aleksander Stankovic (21, Inter Milan), Vasilije Kostov (18, Red Star Belgrade) and Mihajlo Cvetkovic (19, RSC Anderlecht) gradually.

A statement performance against the Germany team on Friday would help Paunovic's standing in Serbia. It would also give him something positive to associate with Germany, as long as nobody mentions Hannover.