In Germany, Kosta Runjaic was only active as a coach in the second division and below. Suddenly he and his team are leaders in a top European league.
The German football coach Kosta Runjaic has taken the lead in Serie A with Udinese Calcio. The club from Friuli, where the star of the later national team captain Oliver Bierhoff once rose, won 3-2 (0-2) at Parma Calcio on the fourth matchday after catching up and took advantage of the wobbles of the big clubs around champions Inter Milan.
Udine has ten points after four league games under Runjaic (53), who only took over the club in the summer. The match winner was French striker Florian Thauvin with two goals (68th, 77th), Lorenzo Lucca had started Udinese Calcio’s comeback in the 49th minute. Parma went into halftime with a comfortable lead thanks to Enrico del Prato (2nd) and Ange Yoan Bonny (43rd), after the break Mandela Keita was shown a yellow-red card (73rd).
Runjaic, who was born in Vienna, coached 1. FC Kaiserslautern, MSV Duisburg and 1860 Munich in Germany, among others. In 2017, he moved to the Polish league and had successful stints at Pogon Szczecin and Legia Warsaw, where Udine noticed him.
