Ilija Aračić

Ilija Aračić
Personal information
Date of birth	15 November 1970 (age 53)
Place of birth	Slavonski Brod, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1980–1985	Ukrina Novo Selo
1985–1991	Polet Bosanksi Brod
Senior career*
Years	Team
1991–1993	Slavonski Brod
1993–1994	Rijeka
1994–1997	Chemnitzer FC
1997–1998	Tennis Borussia Berlin
1999–2000	Hertha BSC
2000–2002	Arminia Bielefeld
Total
Managerial career
2004–2011	Augsburg (youth team coach)
2012–2015	VfB Stuttgart (youth team coach)
2016–2018	FV Illertissen
2018	VfB Stuttgart (assistant)
2021	CSKA Moscow (assistant)
2021–2022	Hertha BSC (assistant)
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ilija Aračić (born 15 November 1970) is a Croatian football coach and a former player who played as a striker.^[1]

Club career

Aračić was born in Slavonski Brod, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. Coming from a sporting family, he started his footballing career as a 9-year-old at Croatian team NK Ukrina Novo Selo, before moving aged 14 to the team his father Anto played for professionally at the time, NK Polet Bosanski Brod.^[1] He later played for his local team where he was spotted by scouts of Prva HNL side NK Rijeka.^[1] Aračić, a drafter by trade,^[1] left Croatia as a result of the War of Independence,^[1] signed for Chemnitzer FC in Germany before transferring to Tennis Borussia Berlin in the summer of 1997. During the 1998–99 season, after impressing Hertha BSC with his two goals against them in the DFB-Pokal,^[2] quickly signed for TeBe's fellow West Berlin rivals where he played for one and a half years before moving to Arminia Bielefeld and seeing out the twilight of his playing career.

Post-playing career

In 2004 Aračić took over as coach of FC Augsburg's youth team.^[3] On 1 January 2012, he became head coach of the under-19 team of VfB Stuttgart.^[4] Aračić moved to FV Illertissen in 2016. In January 2018 he returned to VfB Stuttgart and became assistant coach of Tayfun Korkut.^[5]