Mandaric took management of his father’s engineering enterprise within the Serbian metropolis of Novi Unhappy on the age of 21.
5 years later it was one of many largest companies in Yugoslavia and on a collision course with Marshal Tito, nation’s communist dictator.
Tito denounced Mandaric as a “capitalist traitor” when the entrepreneur took his household to Switzerland.
Mandaric spent a 12 months there, desperately making an attempt to get his money out of the Balkans, then moved to United States the place he based a computer-components agency and an electronics enterprise.
He acquired US citizenship and signed George Finest to play for the primary skilled sports activities crew in Silicon Valley, the San Jose Earthquakes.
Pissed off by the sluggish progress of the sport within the US, Mandaric purchased Belgian membership Charleroi after which moved on to Good.
Portsmouth had been on the point of chapter when he purchased them in 1999 earlier than being revived beneath his stewardship in a sample which might earn him a reputation as football’s ‘Mr Fixit’.
There could be the wobbly begin as proprietor and membership bought acquainted, a couple of spins of the managerial merry-go-round, funding within the squad, enchancment, promotion, consolidation, sale.
With Harry Redknapp appointed as supervisor, Mandaric’s Portsmouth received the Championship in 2003 earlier than he offered the membership to French-Israeli businessman Alexandre Gaydamak for £32m in 2006.
Mandaric purchased Leicester Metropolis for £6m in 2007. The Foxes had been relegated to League One in 2007-08 however returned as champions in 08-09 and misplaced within the Championship play-off semi-finals in 09-10.
He offered Leicester to Thailand’s Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha for £40m later that 12 months and purchased a closely indebted Sheffield Wednesday for £1.
The Owls received promotion from League One in 2012 earlier than Mandaric offered them to a different Thai, Dejphon Chansiri, for £37.5m.
Manadaric was additionally memorably concerned with Redknapp in a corruption saga that began with a BBC Panorama investigation in 2006, and ended with them being acquitted of tax evasion in 2012.
Earlier this 12 months, Mandaric thought of shopping for again Wednesday to save lots of the membership from being “destroyed” beneath present chairman Chansiri.
Nevertheless, he decided against pursuing the idea as a result of he couldn’t commit ample time to “return the membership to the wholesome situation I left it in”.
