December 16, 2019 – Hajduk officially presented Mario Stanic and Ivan Kepcija as new members of the club at a press conference at Poljud on Monday.
The club sent out a call to the media Monday morning that a press conference would begin at noon, without specifying the subject matter. In the meantime, we’ve learned that the Split club presented President Marin Brbic’s new closest associates – namely, Mario Stanic and Ivan Kepcija. Stanic has been named President Brbic’s new advisor on sports policy, and Kepcija the new sports director.
“With us is Mario Stanic, a celebrated international footballer, and Ivan Kepcija, a respected junior specialist. I see this combination as a long-term solution to our sports policy,” said President Brbic.
“First of all, hello to everyone. I am happy to see you. I would also like to thank President Brbic and Hajduk for their confidence. This is a great honor; we come as professionals with a vision. Personally, I think Hajduk is at some kind of a turning point, which means that they will continue to monitor the football market or turn to themselves. I would rather not be a part of a Hajduk that follows fashion but creates it,” Stanic said.
“Hello everyone, it is a great privilege to be a part of a club like this. I hope that together with Mario, I will contribute to raising the quality in all segments of the club. As Mario said, I also do not like to talk much but to work and that the work of all of us will be judged,” said Kepcija.
Mario Stanic was born in Sarajevo on April 10, 1972, and is a celebrated Croatia national team member and bronze medalist at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Stanic started his football career at FC Zeljeznicar, and also played for Croatia Zagreb, Sporting Gijon, SL Benfica, Club Brugge, AC Parma and Chelsea.
He made 49 appearances for the Croatia national team, scoring seven goals, which includes Croatia’s historic first goal at the World Cup.
Ivan Kepcija was born on May 9, 1982, in Pula and graduated with a BA in Economics from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb and Kinesiology at Saint Mary’s College of California.
In the US, he worked as a football coach and technical director of the San Ramon Soccer Club. He started his coaching career in 2004 as a coach at the Jadran Youth School in Poreč. A year later, he went to the United States to study, where he stayed until 2014.
For three years, he was the Deputy Leader of the GNK Dinamo Academy, which he joined in 2014, and at the same time, he served as assistant coach to then-coach Ferdi Milin for the U-19 Croatia national team, which lasted two years.
From 2017 to 2018, Ivan Kepcija was the sports director of the Warsaw Legia.
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