- published: 22 Jan 2016
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Vahid "Vaha" Halilhodžić (born 15 October 1952) is a former Bosnian football player and now a manager, currently managing the Algeria national football team.
Regarded as one of the best Bosnian players in the 1970s and 1980s Halilhodžić had successful playing spells with Velež Mostar, Nantes and Paris Saint-Germain before retiring in the mid-1980s. He also appeared for the national team and was part of the squad which won the 1978 European Under-21 Championship before earning 15 full international caps for Yugoslavia.
In the early 1990s he began managing and, after a short managing stint at his hometown club Velež, permanently moved to France in 1993. Since then he managed a number of teams in French-speaking countries and his achievements include winning the 1997 CAF Champions League with Moroccan side Raja Casablanca, leading the French side Lille OSC from second level to third place in Ligue 1 in less than three years, winning the 2004 Coupe de France with Paris Saint-Germain and qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Côte d'Ivoire.