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| Career | |
| Position: | Coach |
Clubs: Dynamo Zagreb (Cro/1946-52), Metalac Zagreb (Cro/1952-58), Lokomotiv Zagreb (Cro/1958-63)
Winner (1948)
Winner ( 1951)
Lokomotiva Zagreb (Cro/1964-67), Opel Ruesselsheim (W.Ger/D2/1967-69), FC Wiesbaden (W.Ger/1969-70), FC Wacker (Aut/1970-72), FC Lask (Aut/1972-74), Zagreb (1974-76), Dinamo Vinkovci (Cro/1976-79), Dinamo Zagreb (Cro/1979-80), Sturm Graz (Aut/1980-82), Rapid Vienna (Aut/1982-85), VfB Stuttgart (Ger/1985-86), Rapid Vienna (Aut/1986-88), Sturm Graz (Aut/1988-91), Casino Salzburg (Aut/1991-95), Dinamo Zagreb/Croatia Zagreb (1996-97), Fenerbahce (Tur/1997-99), Austria Salzburg (Aut/Sports director/Jan - June 2002)
Finalist (1994)
Winner (1971, 1972, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1995)
Winner (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987)
Winner (1980)
Winner (1997)
Winner (1997)
Austria 1999-2001
Croatia: since 12/07/2002
Played (up to 28/04/2004): 19 matches, 9 wins, 6 draws, 4 defeats, 25 goals for, 16 against
Biography
Disciplinarian coach Otto Baric was 69 when he took over Croatia after the 2002 World Cup and has been coaching some 40 years.
As a midfield player he won both the Yugoslav Championship and domestic Cup with Dynamo Zagreb before hanging up his boots back in 1964.
Most of his club coaching took place in Austria where he won eight league championships and five Cups with Wacker, Sturm Graz, Rapid Vienna and Casino Salzburg, whom he led to a Uefa Cup final in 1994 and a league and Cup double in 1995.
The Casino Salzburg era was possibly the pinnacle of his club career and though they lost both legs of the Uefa Cup final (1-0, 0-1) to Inter Milan, the club won its first ever Austrian title that year.
He coached Dynamo Zagreb to the double in 1997 but won nothing in Germany with Stuttgart or in Turkey at Fenerbahce.
Austrian football will never forget his time as coach of their national team.
In their 2002 World Cup qualifying Group Baric's side needed at least a point in their last match in Israel.
The tie came just three weeks after the September 11 attack on New York in 2001 and eleven of the Austrian side refused to travel to Israel claiming the security risk was too high.
The depleted side however drew 1-1 to ensure Austria earned a play off against Turkey for a place in the finals in Asia.
However Baric was furious with the players who had backed out of the Israel match and dropped all of them for the play-offs, which they then lost 6-0 (1-0, 5-0)
His next port of call was Croatia and the Euro 2004 qualifiers. The team had done poorly at the 2002 World Cup and had seen Robert Prosineski, Davor Suker and Alen Boksic all fade into retirement.
Croatia qualified in a play off against Slovenia (2-1 agg) thanks to a goal in either game (1-1, 1-0) from Monaco striker Dado Prso, who he had favoured up front.
But Croatia had only made it to second place in Group 8 on goal difference ahead of Belgium, after a 4-0 win at home.
They needed a win in the last match at home to already qualified group winners Bulgaria. On the night an Ivica Olic goal gave them a 1-0 win, but not before some furious scenes ahead of the match.
Baric had slammed his players for a relaxed attitude and cancelled training in preference of a dressing room lecture on discipline and rigour.