Ermin Šiljak

Slovenian footballer

Ermin Šiljak (born 11 May 1973) is a Slovenian retired footballer who played as a centre forward.

Šiljak made his debut for Slovenia in a March 1994 away friendly match against Macedonia. He earned a total of 48 caps for the national team, scoring 14 goals. He was a participant at the Euro 2000 and scored nine goals in nine games in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying. His final international was an October 2005 World Cup qualification match against Scotland.

Šiljak managed Slovenian under 16 and under 19 national teams. In 2012, he was a manager of Olimpija Ljubljana.

Šiljak joined Botev Plovdiv in July 2015. He made a debut in a match against the local rivals Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Plovdiv derby ended in a 1–1 draw. Šiljak achieved five wins, three draws, and five defeats in his first thirteen games as a manager of Botev Plovdiv in A Grupa. On 27 October 2015, Botev Plovdiv was eliminated in the Round of 16 of the Bulgarian Cup after a 1–0 defeat to FC Sozopol. After that, Šiljak expelled Yordan Hristov, Mariyan Ognyanov, Plamen Nikolov, and Joël Tshibamba from the first team. The changes did not lead to any positive results with young players as his team lost twice in a row in A Grupa: a 2–0 away defeat to Slavia Sofia and a 3–1 home defeat to Beroe Stara Zagora. After less than six months, at the end of November 2015, Šiljak resigned as a manager of Botev Plovdiv.

On 21 April 2016, China League One club Dalian Transcendence signed Ermin Šiljak as manager for two years. By August however, Šiljak was sacked by the team due to financial reasons.

Since Ermin Šiljak was very familiar with China League One in spring 2017 got offer to help newly promoted team Baoding Yingli Yitong. At the end of April 2017 Šiljak became Assistant Coach to Jo Bonfrere. Seven games before the end of season owner out of nowhere sacked all coaching staff in club and among them was also Šiljak.

On 29th of April 2023 Ermin Šiljak unexpectedly took over Greece Super League Team Aris Thessaloniki Football Club to help achieve European spot in Championship Group. He signed short term contract until 30th of June 2023 and was for the first time on bench in game against PAOK on 30th of April 2023. Goal and successful mission was accomplished in next round when Aris on 3rd of May 2023 won against Volos and Aris two games before the end of Championship secured spot which guarantee playing Qualification matches for Conference League in season 2023/24. Šiljak was only coach in theory, though, as Greek manager Apostolos Terzis did not have the proper licence yet.