Football elegance
— They raised to the heavens those follers from the coaches who came to the games even in football boots... as if they were going to play! —
In addition to Ćira's coaching acrobatics, statements and successes, his fashion style was also often written about. He was one of the first "coaches in suits". Because of this, some respected him, while others admired his good style.
He expressed his opinion about those who called out his fashion taste by publishing an elegant photo from his younger days. Under it he wrote:
"When I was a coach, I would wear a tracksuit during the week because I prepared the team in such a way that I always demonstrated all the exercises to them, but on the day of the match - that football holiday - I would always wear my best suit.
Out of respect for that event, the teams, the judges and, most importantly: the fans who came to watch us.
I was certainly one of the first in this part of our country, and some journalists did not understand that, or, well, they were malicious on purpose, so they wrote that I could not be a coach because of that. They raised to the heavens those footballs from the coaches who would not leave their sports equipment, and some of them, I remember it very well, came to the matches even in football boots... as if they were going to play!
Instead of the journalists making fun of it and turning it into some quality banter, they marveled at my patent leather shoes and a handkerchief in my jacket pocket.
Real coaches don't look like that, they wrote in those days, even calling me a dandy. If Ivo Tomić hadn't sung my white scarf so beautifully, I'm sure they wouldn't have liked him either...
I'm glad that in that matter, what a coach I was, I denied them with my results, and the fact that this elegant style eventually became the standard for all coaches in the world - although I've never seen a single one in such a good suit as this one of mine in the photo - is another small victory of mine over those mangupis."
