THE FUSE

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A Bundesliga legend was so determined to sign Veljko Paunovic 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 swift exit. Mention Hannover 96 and the memories are unlikely to improve.

Towards the end of the winter transfer window in the 2004/05 season, Paunovic became a point of contention at the Lower Saxony club, then in the Bundesliga. Hannover were enjoying a good season under Ewald Lienen, their third in the top flight after a lengthy absence. At the end of January 2005, they sat sixth after 19 matches and were on course for European football.

There was no pressing need to strengthen. Ilja Kaenzig, now managing director of VfL Bochum and Hannover's manager at the time, saw little point in winter transfers anyway. He believed they added value only in the rarest of cases. His rule was clear: no new signings for 96 in the winter. Martin Kind, then chairman of the supervisory board, agreed, but Lienen eventually persuaded him otherwise.

Ewald Lienen remembered Veljko Paunovic from his time at Hannover

Lienen, the legendary coach who also had spells at Hansa Rostock, 1. FC Köln and FC St. Pauli, saw things differently. He wanted a striker who could guarantee goals midway through the season. Hannover already had Thomas Christiansen, Daniel Stendel, Roman Wallner, Leandro and Jiri Kaufmann, but none scored regularly. By the end of the season, Stendel and playmaker Jiri Stajner would be the club's top league scorers with just six goals apiece.

Paunovic came 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 club CD Tenerife and seen his goalscoring qualities at close hand. Kaenzig pointed to the "settled team structure" and did not want to jeopardise it with Hannover so well placed in the table. Lienen pushed the move through anyway. Shortly before the window closed, 96 announced Paunovic's arrival.

"I know how controversial this was. But I'll do everything I can 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. They were going through a difficult period and were far from the permanent force at the top of Spain's LaLiga that they are nowadays. He had failed to score 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 Hannover 96's highest earner

"The club is taking no financial risk. I'll prove that by the summer," Paunovic said on his arrival. For his first half-year at 96, until the summer of 2005, he was reportedly set to earn a comparatively modest €15,000 a month. His contract at Atletico had also been terminated because of the Rojiblancos' financial problems at the time, so 96 did not have to pay a transfer fee. Paunovic had, however, signed an 18-month contract until the summer of 2006, with an option for another year. From the start of the 2005/06 season, he was set to become Hannover's highest earner on around €1 million a year.

Expectations were high. His compatriot Mladen Krstajic, then a centre-back at Schalke 04, was full of praise: "He's an excellent player. Great on the ball, really strong in the air, quick enough." S04, who were still pushing Bayern Munich hard at the top of the Bundesliga and finished runners-up, apparently wanted Paunovic too. At least, that was Krstajic's claim: "It's a shame; he would have strengthened us as well."

Could Paunovic have delivered at Schalke? At Hannover, amid those tensions, he never found his feet. "We've only been together for four days, so not everything can click yet," Paunovic said after a mixed Bundesliga debut in early February 2005, a 3-1 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund. Lienen had put him straight into the starting line-up as the lone striker, but the newcomer failed to convince.

"I need more time for the other players to understand what I'm doing, and for me to understand what they're doing," Paunovic said, asking for patience. Two more disappointing starts followed, in a 0-0 draw at Freiburg and a 4-1 home defeat to Werder Bremen. Even as spring 2005 approached, he was making no impact on 96's play.

Discontent over Paunovic gradually grew at Hannover

"It was clear from the start that he's no second Andriy Shevchenko," Lienen said in defence of his player. Shevchenko was one of the world's best strikers at the time and had won the Ballon d'Or in 2004. "We have to give him time, and then he'll be a great help to us."

In mid-March 2005, Paunovic finally helped Hannover for the first time, setting up the winner in a 2-1 home victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach. It was the last of his mere 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, directing his criticism at Kaenzig and Kind. "For a club to function, people mustn't work against one another. Anyone who doesn't understand that harms the club."

Lienen was exempt from his criticism. "The conflict over me harms everyone. The team too. Otherwise we could have played better, perhaps I could have as well. But I didn't cause the conflict." Paunovic was reportedly already considering a quick departure within the squad. His compatriot and midfield orchestrator Nebojsa Krupnikovic was also set to leave in the summer of 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 around two months after Lienen had brought him in against the club bosses' wishes, Paunovic's spell at 96 was over. Hannover had at least arranged a termination agreement for the summer of 2005 when he signed his contract, sparing the club further costs from the failed transfer. Had he stayed, the current Serbia coach would have become their highest earner.

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

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

Schweinsteiger compared Paunovic with Guardiola

A few months later, Paunovic took charge of MLS club Chicago Fire, where he coached Bastian Schweinsteiger, among others. He had worked hard to recruit 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, comparing him with one of the greatest coaches of all time, under whom he had once played at Bayern: "We had a very good conversation. He reminds me in many ways of Pep Guardiola. In how he wants his team to play and in his ideas about the game," Schweinsteiger said of Paunovic.

Paunovic remained 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. By then, failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup was all but unavoidable.

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

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

After the 2-0 defeat to the Germany team in Munich in early October, Paunovic stressed that such a result was to be 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 said angrily in response to a reporter's question prompted by the disappointing results. "Everyone close to us knows we are working to turn the bad atmosphere around," he emphasised, noting that he had taken over the team in a difficult situation. "We have 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?

While Serbia had little chance in Germany, they showed genuine promise in their two very narrow 2-1 defeats to the Netherlands, home and away, and against a strong Greece side. Paunovic has brought back former Ajax star Dusan Tadic, now 37 and at NEC Nijmegen, after an absence of more than two years. His former Under-20 World Cup hero Milinkovic-Savic is playing for Serbia again under Paunovic, who is also relying on 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 lead 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) step by step.

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 in future, as long as nobody mentions Hannover.