Paunovic Admits He Offered to Resign After Cape Verde Loss

The hall at the Football House in Stara Pazova is packed, the cameras are set up, and Veljko Paunovic sits at the table with Serbia’s Nations League squad list in front of him. It was meant to be an ordinary squad announcement ahead of the next cycle. It turned into something else entirely, because the head coach himself raised a topic no reporter had even gotten to ask about.

He said that in June, after a disastrous double header, he wanted to leave the bench.

“I offered to resign, I was very disappointed and I felt personally responsible after that gathering,” Paunovic said at a press conference on September 18.

That gathering cost Serbia two heavy defeats in friendly matches, 0-3 to Cape Verde and 1-5 to Mexico. A squad made up mostly of players who rarely get a chance in the national shirt had nothing to show for itself, and the head coach took that failure on himself, to the point of considering walking away. He did not go through with the resignation, though. He says he has since rebuilt his belief in the job.

Now, three months later, the list looks different. It carries 28 called-up players, nine of them young, and among the new names is Stefan Dzodic, now in his second season at Almeria. Paunovic singled out his range of movement and his reading of the game, adding that he also knows the player’s family, having once played alongside his father. There was no place for Andrija Maksimovic, who, according to the head coach, does not respond to call-ups.

What he announced for the Nations League sounds like a clear yardstick for success, far more concrete than any result-based target.

“I won’t waste anyone’s time, least of all my own. That’s how I was thinking back in June, and that’s why I made the decision I made. I want to see whether we can play as a team, whether we fight, play good football and never give up. That we don’t lay down our weapons in advance for anyone. If I don’t see that on the pitch, I have nothing more to look for here,” the head coach said.

That last part is the heart of the whole story. Paunovic did not say he needs a win at any cost, he said he needs a team that fights. If that is missing in the Nations League too, by his own words, there is no reason for him to stay on the bench.

The schedule ahead of the “Eagles” leaves no room for easing back into form. Serbia opens the competition at home on September 24 against Greece at 20:45, and just three days later, on September 27, hosts the Netherlands at 18:00. Two difficult away trips follow: Germany on October 1 at 20:45, then a rematch against the Netherlands on October 4, also at 20:45. Four matches in ten days, against two rivals from the top of European football and one side Serbia is out to settle the score with from their first meeting.

Unlike in June, when the bench was without most of the first-choice squad, the national team is now getting back players who were missing through fatigue, injuries and withdrawals. That is why Paunovic now speaks with more composure than he did three months ago, even as he has set the highest bar since he took charge.

The first test arrives already on Tuesday, September 24, against Greece in Belgrade. That is when it will become clear whether June was the bottom Serbia is rising from, or just a pause before the next fall.