The Tigers’ assistant manager played his part in assisting Sergej Jakirovic in a season to remember
Sergej Jakirovic and Marko Salatovic celebrate promotion at Wembley(Image: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock)
Marko Salatovic described Oli McBurnie’s 95th-minute winner at Wembley to send Hull City into the Premier League as the biggest moment in his life.
Salatovic arrived last summer as part of Sergej Jakirovic’s backroom staff and was appointed as assistant manager alongside Dean Holden, and has enjoyed a colourful campaign on the touchline.
His influence has been crucial to Jakirovic throughout the season, providing a vital sounding board to Jakirovic and developing a strong bond with the dressing room.
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The Croatian has also played his part in funding the FA’s Christmas party, with nine yellow cards and three reds along the way, and speaking about City’s breathtaking achievement at Wembley, the 41-year-old simply could not hide his pride at what the club have achieved this season, as attention now turns to Friday’s fixture release day in the Premier League.
“This is the biggest moment in my life, the biggest achievement,” Salatovic told Hull Live in his first interview since arriving in England last summer.
“Unbelievable, unbelievable season from the beginning of the season with all the problems that we had, and we finish like this in the play-offs. Then, in the playoff final, we won. Unbelievable. Congratulations to everyone in the club, especially to the players.”
Attention for Salatovic, Jakirovic and the rest of the coaching team will now turn towards preparing for life in the Premier League, the world’s most difficult league, but it’s something that will provide him with a huge amount of honour.
“First of all, for the staff, they are amazing, amazing people; we are like one big family,” he continued. “We are looking in the same direction, and it’s easier when you have these kinds of people in the staff, especially Dean (Holden), Andy (Dawson) and Erbil (Bozkurt), it’s amazing.”
Those emotions were certainly stirred on Bank Holiday Monday when the Tigers’ players were given a heroes’ reception across the city during their open-top bus parade and civic reception in Queen Victoria Square.
“When I see now how many people support us on the streets, it’s unbelievable, unbelievable. They deserve it. They are with us all season, support us in every game, it’s an amazing, amazing feeling.”
Given how crucial Oli McBurnie has been all season, and how important his arrival was last summer, many have felt it was written in the stars that it would be him who struck the decisive blow against Boro, and it came just in time.
“The day before, I spoke with some of the staff, and I said this is written somewhere, it needs to be like this. We need to be the winners. When you see the whole season, everything that happened and in the last round we were fighting for the play-offs, it’s like in the movies.
“This is the biggest moment in my life, in my football career, to play the final in the biggest game in the world at Wembley and to win the game in the last minute of the game, it’s unbelievable.”
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