SINGAPORE - Lion City Sailors interim coach Luka Lalic said on Friday (Aug 12) he is embracing being thrust into the thick of the Singapore Premier League (SPL) title race.
The 35-year-old Serb, who is the club's academy technical director, will now double-hat to lead the SPL leaders, who parted ways with head coach Kim Do-hoon in a shock announcement on Thursday evening.
Kim's departure came less than 24 hours after he was handed a three-match suspension and $2,000 fine for headbutting a rival team's coach in a SPL game two weeks earlier.
Lalic told The Straits Times he was surprised by the Sailors' decision, but had no qualms taking the reins of the first team after conversations with those in the club, including billionaire owner Forrest Li.
With nine games left this season, the Sailors are one point ahead of Albirex Niigata.
Asked about the weight of expectation on him to steer the Sailors to a successful title defence, Lalic said: "I'm in a privileged position to feel this... so I feel no bad pressure, only good pressure and I'm very excited to start."
Lalic is a former Serbia Under-17 player who was forced to hang up his boots at the age of 18 because of heart issues. He is no stranger to Singapore football, having worked with the late Australian coach Darren Stewart at SPL sides Balestier Khalsa and Woodlands Wellington, while also running private academy Turf City Football Club.
He left Singapore in late 2016 to serve as an international development coach for Dutch side Feyenoord, before returning in 2020 to take up his current role with the Sailors.
With less than 48 hours between Kim's departure and the Sailors' next SPL game against the Young Lions on Saturday, Lalic said he plans to take a backseat for now.
"On Thursday, I just had a short talk to the players to introduce myself... I'm taking a little bit more of a passive role for the Young Lions game.
"It doesn't make sense for me to change all the preparations the team has made for the game," said Lalic, adding that assistant coach Noh Rahman would call the shots instead.
"It's clear there is quality in the team. The performances the players show will hopefully help me piece together the puzzle for the future."
On Friday, the local fraternity were still trying to make sense of Kim's abrupt exit. A to-the-point, 66-word media statement put out by the Sailors was interpreted by some as a sign all had not been well.
One official at another SPL club, who asked not to be named, said: "It felt like the (disciplinary) punishment gave Sailors the reason to get rid of someone they already did not want."
An SPL coach added: "At this point of the season, with so few matches left, it is very odd that he would be let go. But the reality is that performances have not been up to par and the latest incident could have been the tipping point."
One source told ST that "tension had been simmering" recently with Kim's status within the club, without elaborating.
Word also went around that he had come across as rude or stand-offish to coaches of some other SPL clubs.
One coach told ST that Kim did not allow recording of a pre-season friendly match between the two teams, despite it being the norm for analysis purposes.
Another team was told to take down its social media post of a full-time score of a pre-season game, as Kim had wanted to keep his team's progress under wraps before the season began.
He had also allegedly got into a confrontation with a member of the national team coaching staff on the sidelines of one of the Sailors' training sessions.
But one Sailors player defended his former coach, saying: "Maybe he came across as unapproachable because he didn't speak English and needs a translator. But he wanted to win, and he wanted to protect the team. To me, he's a good guy."
ST previously reported that Kim had apologised to his players for his conduct during the match against Tampines Rovers on July 24 right after the game, and apologised again on Thursday morning after punishments were meted out the night before.
The 52-year-old former South Korea striker was the second coach to helm the Sailors full-time since they became Singapore's first privatised football club in Feb 2020. Australian Aurelio Vidmar had been coach then, and left in April 2021.
Kim, who had won the 2017 Korean FA Cup and 2020 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League with Ulsan Hyundai, was appointed in June 2021 on a two-and-a-half year contract and steered the Sailors to the SPL title last season.
He also helped Sailors achieve a best showing by a Singapore side in the AFC Champions League this year, finishing with seven points.