Ivica Osim coached Savićević from 1986 until 1992 in the Yugoslav national team and butted heads with him regularly over playing time. In 2014, the retired coach said: "Yes, I had issues with him. He was a fiery character who felt he had to play. But what was I supposed to do, get rid of Zlatko Vujović who was every coach's dream and put in Savićević who was perhaps the better player, but with whom you never knew what he's going to give you on the pitch in a given match. Savićević is one of the best players I ever coached, but he also fell victim to some bad advice at that time. Today we've got decent relations, we talked it all out... Back during the time of those frosty relations with Savićević, for me personally, it got to the point where I lost the will to coach. I got sick of going to practice knowing I'll be looking at Savićević, that we'll be staring each other down, that he'll be unhappy for not playing... I was unhappy about that too".