The unlikely rise of a Hull City cult hero

Hull City haven’t so much been this season’s surprise package as the gift that keeps on giving. Written off before the first ball was kicked, they remain unbeaten in their opening four matches. They have beaten Manchester United and drawn with Aston Villa – two teams who are competing in this season’s Champions League. And on Saturday, Chelsea also had to come from behind to nick a draw against them at Stamford Bridge. Sergej Jakirovic has enjoyed quite a ride since arriving at a club that had staved off relegation to the third tier on the final day of the 2024-25 season. The reaction was underwhelming. Hull City celebrate winning the Championship play-off final last season (Photo: Getty) Now, 15 months on, the Bosnian has assumed something approaching cult-like status on Humberside. And the Tigers are enjoying a boom in popularity in Croatia, where Jakirovic has spent the majority of his career. NK Sesvete is a club from the second tier of Croatian football. Situated in eastern Zagreb, its modest Josip Radnik stadium holds just over 1000 people. It was here, shortly after he called time on a playing career that incorporated spells at an extraordinary 20 clubs across Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia, that Jakirovic first cut his teeth in management. “We have all followed Sergej’s work closely, and we still follow him closely today,” Emanuel Stama, the club’s secretary, tells The i Paper. “Sergej’s biggest strength is that he has built his career step by step – he’s a coach who has never tried to skip a stage. “When he arrived, we were going through a period of transition. He knew the club, he had come through our own system – the young players developed very quickly under him. “He’s able to adapt to the teams he manages – he’s very good at managing people. “He’s a coach who is able to build good relationships, someone who creates a great atmosphere, and someone who the players follow without question. “When he was here, it was clear that his coaching career was only going to go one way.” The 49-year-old won five caps for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: Getty) That said, given Jakirovic was at Sesvete as recently as 2018, the notion that the 6ft 4in Bosnian would be coaching in the Premier League in just eight years would have been dismissed as the tallest of Balkan tales. Anyone who has seen Hull play this season will need no convincing that the squad would run through a brick wall for him. For a lot of those players, he is relatable. This isn’t a former player who led a gilded existence before entering management, this is a man who has experienced almost everything that football can throw at you. The most successful spell of his career as a player came during his time at CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria. He was part of the side that knocked Bayer Leverkusen out in the opening round of the Uefa Cup to make it through to the group stages of a tournament that ended with Middlesborough finishing as runners-up to a Sevilla side containing Enzo Maresca, who scored twice in the final. The majority of his career, though, was spent in the rather more humble surroundings of second-tier football across Europe. “He didn’t play for the biggest clubs, he built his career in the lower leagues,” Stama says. “I think his experiences as a player helped develop the ideas he now has as a coach.” Hull City are taking the Premier League by storm (Photo: Getty) Jakirovic was a good enough centre-back to win five caps for his country, the last of which came against Japan in February 2006. And although Bosnia was one of the few countries he didn’t play league football in, it was at Zrinjski Mostar that he won his first piece of silverware as a coach in 2021-22. Before heading home, he found himself at Gorica. And a source at the Croatian club says he sees similarities between the philosophy he has implemented so successfully at Hull, and the one which turned Gorica into one of the Croatian top flight’s toughest propositions. “There are certainly some similarities, particularly in the intensity and organisation of his teams,” he says. “Sergej has always wanted his teams to be competitive, aggressive and well organised, while also trying to play on the front foot and take the initiative. “It’s natural that his approach has evolved as well – but some of those fundamental characteristics of his football are still recognisable. “One of his biggest strengths was his ability to communicate with players and create a strong team atmosphere. “He had a very clear idea of how he wanted his team to play and was able to transfer that idea to the players. “What was particularly impressive was the way he managed to get the team to believe in itself and play with confidence.” Read more Phil Brown: My three-point plan to stop Hull ‘getting their arses kicked’ The Score: Man Utd’s Achilles heel, Liverpool are jumpy and Palace’s big problem Following his spell at Gorica, he went onto win the Bosnian league by 27 points with Zrinjski before completing the domestic double back in Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb in 2023-24. “It’s no coincidence that he has achieved results with teams expected to win trophies, and also with teams whose main goal was to stay in the league,” Stama says. Hull might succeed or fail in their attempts to do both by the end of the season. But given their start under Jakirovic, it suddenly looks foolish to rule anything out.