Velimir Zajec was a great player, and enjoyed successful spells Dynamo Zagreb and Panathinaikos - where he made over 100 appearances. He was a regular for Yugoslavia, captaining his country to the World Cup in Spain in 1982 and the French European Championships.
To start his coaching career Zajec returned to Zagreb. He was director of football with Dynamo from 1989-1991. He returned to Panathinaikos and held a similar role there before becoming head coach for a short time. In 2000, he moved back to Zagreb to become their General manager and took up a role within the Croatian Football Association.
In 2002, he returned to Pana, where he became the Director of Football and helped them win their seventh League and Cup double.
Zajec joined Portsmouth amid a cloud of confusion in November 2004, originally as the club's executive director. However, following the departure of Harry Redknapp, Zajec stepped in to the managerial hot-seat in a caretaker capacity. It was thought Zajec's arrival brought with it the end of Redknapp's reign, although it was never proved/admitted.
After much persuasion, Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric finally got Zajec to agree to become the club's permanent boss shortly before Christmas 2004, however, his reign as boss was short-lived with the introduction of Alain Perrin to the job.
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