We also voted about where we would prefer to play

Nenad Protega is one of the most recognizable faces Slovenian football in an independent Slovenia. A guest of Del’s football podcast Var In the early years of independence, he conquered the titles for Olympia and Gorizia. After his acting career, he created championship Domžale as a sports director, he also worked at Interblock and Olympia, performed the role of a professional commentator, and now he is a football players’ representative and at the same time successfully navigates in the business council at Duol.

In the 1990s, the Ljubljana resident of Štepanj, in the 1990s, is undoubtedly the biggest pool of excellent football players, he grew up at Kodeljevo near Slav, like most boys from this environment. But the first championship in independent Slovenia began with Olympia.

“Slovan is my first and eternal love. Therefore, I cannot be a fan of any other club, although my business also requires some more neutrality. At the age of 12, I started a football journey. These were unforgettable years that are beautiful also because most friends stayed in football. There were five of us, yet Slavisa Stojanovic, Safet Hadzic, Nihad Pejković and Željko Milinovic. We are all out of the Štepanj settlement, except that I came to Slovan after the second bend. At that time, selections were created in elementary schools, and I was not in the Štepanj settlement (elementary school Karel Destovnik Kajuhop. p.), but in the leadmat (elementary school Jože Potrč). I have been along with Ales Czechwho attended the elementary school Ledina. We combined with older boys. It was a really wonderful period, many beautiful stories and events. We also hung out privately, ”recalled a beautiful period of growing up, a 55-year-old Ljubljana man, who says he is still a counting.

« My wife is also from there, my parents live there, » one of the many Slavs revealed on the big stage in the Olympia jersey. In independent Slovenia he was the first from Slavan’s package at the Green and White.

First Days at Olympia in a sign of uncertainty

“I lived for Slovan because Olympia was our biggest rival in the younger categories. My generation was the youth and cadet champion of Slovenia. At that time there were really many clubs in Ljubljana, Ilirija, Svoboda, Ljubljana, there was great competition. Olympia matches always motivated us. Everything went naturally, after the first season in the member competition, Olympia called me with Željko. We went for preparations for Brežice. This was 1990 when the World Cup was in Italy. Then Slovan expressed his desire to stay at Kodeljev for another year. I remember that one of the patrons was a well -known caterer Momo Jorgačević. He gave both German marks at the time. I think we went to the sea with a friend of friends and wasted everything in two weeks. It was ‘cute’. The following year Olympia came again when it became its coach Philip Mendawho was a coach at Slavs. I signed the contract, Željko, I think, half a year later. The contract was minimal, it was not large amounts, but at that time Olympia was formally in the first Yugoslav league. We started our preparations with the thoughts of the first bike and the match with the partisan in Belgrade. The stadium has already been sold out. Then there were known events, Slovenia went its own way, ”the first green and white days were very exciting.

My friend Slavisa Stojanovic and I were key creators of the championship Domžale. Photo: Damjan Žibert

“On Friday, two days before the start of the championship, we voted in the locker room about which league we would like to play in. To me, then a young boy, that was really weird. I wondered, are we going to decide where to play? The outcome was 15:14 for the Yugoslav League. But nothing was clear, it was comical. They told us that we would train in the morning and then head to Belgrade. We come to training and tell us we won’t play. Well, we did the training and waited for how to proceed. Let’s go, they told us. And again: Let’s not go. Then the coaches wanted a friendly match because it was already organized. Rijeka was coming to Ljubljana. They returned her. In the end, we stayed at home and Olympia became 21. The club in 1. SNL, ”Protega recalled the path to independence, which brought him many success in the Slovenian football space.

He was attracted to Nova Gorica by Tomaž Kavčič

At Olympia, there was alpha and omega at the time Ivan Zidarbusinessman with authority and reputation. “He is considered the notion of the boss, the ‘hornbeam’, the president. He was a man of that period, although I reluctantly mark people. Realistically we didn’t see him much, but we knew he was there. I didn’t enjoy his company too much and never thought about who he was. But he was a personality, he had charisma. When he came to the locker room, rarely, there was silence. That means he had respect. We knew that the club is run by a man who has power and can do a lot for football. In the end, it didn’t appear that way, but each story has its beginning and end. Mine at Olympia has been completed earlier, « described the character and the work of the once very influential tycoon.

Nenad Protega in the role of sports director Olympia did not last long in Milan Mandaric. Photo: Blaž Samec/Work

For the first four years, Protega was the champion with Olympia, the fifth season … “I did not want to leave, but it was clear to me that I would no longer have a visible role at Olympia and invited me to Nova Gorica Tomaž Kavčičwho was a helper at the time Milan Miklavic. I didn’t know him because he came from Austria. But it all went great. I stayed for three years, the first year we were champions, in the meantime I completed my studies and graduated, « the second chapter in 1. SNL in Primorska was marked by a graduate sociologist Protego. The latter followed in Domžale. How quickly he took over the rehearsal of sports policies at Domžale, where he completed his acting career, and brought Slavis Stojanovic, how he found himself at Interblock, at Olympia, how he became a football players’ representative, and much more to have been sparkling and detailed in an interesting VAR podcast. Also, how from football, without leaving it completely, transferred to business waters and became one of the directors at Duol.