FC IMT Belgrade, a football club as a model of courage and vision

NegotiateWind is an all-in-one platform that brings together football clubs, decision-makers, agents, and players in one place and makes negotiations, communication, and reaching final agreements easier.

All of that without complete phone chaos, unread WhatsApp messages, and countless calls that go on endlessly.

The idea behind this interview is simple: through football stories, to gather people who love, understand, and live football, and to give some of them space to tell their story. A story that is not only about results, but also about process, work, and vision, because behind the scenes, football is exactly that.

If any story has drawn attention in Serbian football in recent years, it is FC IMT. A club that consciously chose the path of youth, even at the cost of short-term results.

Contrary to expectations, dedicated work and the right decisions have brought IMT into its third season in the SuperLiga, a stable mid-table position, and the status of a club that young talented players truly trust.

That is why in this conversation we focus on IMT, but also on the man who, together with his colleagues, observes and builds that system from the inside, Miloš Knežević.

NegotiateWind:
Before we touch on the phenomenon called IMT, I think it is very important that readers get to know you. Your career is incredibly interesting: FC Hoffenheim, FC Mainz, FC Celje, FC Mura, FC Železnik, FC Triglav, and now FC IMT, all by the age of 35.

Miloš:
Yes, I decided quite early that football was my calling, in one way or another. So right after high school, I decided to fully dedicate myself to football. What I noticed about myself quite early was that at every match and every training session I analyzed. I analyzed the game much more than the average player. I analyzed the coach’s ideas, what was missing, what was not working, what was great. What actually defined my future path was the realization that this kind of work suited me much more than being on the pitch.

NegotiateWind:
I feel like you skipped a part of your story. Tell me more about your playing days.

Miloš:
I did, maybe even consciously. As a young player, many things can either break you or strengthen you, depending on how you look at them. I was a rebel who experienced injustice, which made me want to leave football. At 17, I played for FK BASK. I stood out in quality, I was the best player on the team, and I was not playing. I was not getting a chance.
That was a different time. You did not have a mentor who would stop you and tell you that it was part of the process. I decided to move to OFK Beograd on my own initiative.

OFK was playing in the second tier, and there was no space for a young player like me. I was mostly a benchwarmer. You play 35 minutes in half a season, and that is it. That was the breaking point.

NegotiateWind:
Yes, I completely understand. Without a mentor, a rebel hardly survives in that world. But that was not your final break with football, was it?

Miloš:
My thinking at the time was that I did not want to go in circles. I chose this path, but if it did not work here either, I would move on. Then I made a bold decision that turned out to be the right one and went to Switzerland. I was ready to take two steps back in order to make a leap forward. That period was hard, but I learned the language, made some connections, and reset myself, so to speak.

The first training session was a complete disaster. Unprepared, lost, heavy legs. I thought I was embarrassing myself, but the scouts and the coach obviously saw something.

They suggested that I stay and play for the U21s so they could keep an eye on me. First match, first half, I do not know how to put it, but I did not exist on the pitch. And then something broke inside me. In the second half, I turned things around, made one or two good moves, felt the opponent, felt confidence, and played the best half of my life.

Immediately after the match, they offered me a contract. That situation taught me how sometimes one chance, one moment, can change everything. To me it all seemed accidental, but obviously there was a reason why it happened. Even today, when I watch young players, I am cautious, because you never know who just has heavy legs, and who will explode in the very next moment.

NegotiateWind:
When did you realize that your football path was actually beyond the touchline?

Miloš:
The professional level of every sport is ruthless, and football most of all. Injuries, competition, tempo. At one point, I simply realized that my body could not endure the level I had set for myself. I reached some of my own limits that I could not break through.

Young Boys sent me out on loans, so I played in Germany as well, at Offenbach, mostly in the lower leagues. That was when I truly felt the weight of the professional world for the first time. That was also when I decided, for the second time, to say “enough” to football, to playing football.

Through an interesting set of life circumstances, I came to Hoffenheim for a coaching internship. Hoffenheim functions on a phenomenal level, where every detail matters. You get a mentor, and behind you, you feel both the system and the structure. Football from a completely different angle than anything I had experienced as a young player.

Interestingly, one test stayed with me. I was given a group of youth players I did not know and was asked to assign them positions. You have one training session to watch them. These are basically kids in development, you cannot even tell by their build who is a center back and who is a striker. And I got nine out of ten right.

After that, my mentor asked me, "What do you think about scouting?" "If you want to learn, I will teach you."

And that is where my story really begins.

Not long after, I moved from that short coaching role into a scouting role.

NegotiateWind:
We will consciously skip one part of your career, because I personally see IMT and the results you are achieving as the crown of that journey. What specifically attracted you to a small club in Serbia?

Miloš:
What attracted me was the dedication of Rade, the club owner. I saw a vision. And I saw space to work without meaningless pressure.

At first, I was in a kind of part-time regime. You come, you work, you deliver results. Through scouting, I could function without classic working hours. But when you take on a full role, you realize that without staying from morning until night, there is no success.

And what shocked me was that people work on Christmas and New Year’s. And when you see that level of dedication, you know that success is guaranteed for that collective.

People often think it is just a job. It is not. A club is 24/7. There are no shifts in your head. You may have working hours on paper, but in reality, in your head, you are constantly working.

NegotiateWind:
What sets IMT apart the most in the SuperLiga?

Miloš:
First of all, courage. To let a 16-year-old play in the SuperLiga in a system where one result can put you in trouble. In our league, until the last round you do not know where you will finish, and yet we still stand by the position that developing young players is our priority.

Second is vision. If you do not have an idea of where you want to be tomorrow, then you are just working endlessly.

Third is day-and-night work.

That combination makes the difference.

The best example that explains IMT’s philosophy as a club is a situation where we consciously accepted a financially worse offer than another one we had. And all because that club could guarantee the player minutes, had a plan and a development program. That is IMT’s philosophy. Sporting and financial success matter, but we put player development first.

NegotiateWind:
Serbian football has not had significant success for a long time, neither at the national team level nor at the club level. If you had to locate a few problems in working with youth categories, what would they be?

Miloš:
The biggest problem in Serbia is the transition from youth to senior football. We do not have a reserve league. And that is the most critical moment, from boy to man.

You cannot develop a player if he does not play. Training without matches is not enough. You have to allow a player to make mistakes on the pitch, to endure those mistakes, and only then will you get continuity.

That is why IMT uses affiliate clubs as a bridge: Ušće, Studentski Grad. It is simple. There is that transition period when you have outgrown youth categories but are not yet ready for the first team. In those teams, you get a chance, minutes. We may not have a reserve league in Serbia, but we have created a reserve league within our conditions.

NegotiateWind:
When people look at IMT from the outside, they see a young team and stable results. But I am interested in what is most strongly felt on the inside in everyday work. What can you single out as a difference compared to other environments?

Miloš:
The difference is that there is a sense that everyone is working toward the same goal. It is not just about surviving the match and then seeing what happens next. There is a plan, and there are people who carry that plan. You see it in the small things: in how every player is monitored, how development is discussed, how the next step is immediately considered. Often, plans are made only when a problem arises. Here, plans are made before problems.

Another important thing is that IMT has no illusion that it can beat the system by buying solutions. IMT has to create. And when you are aware of that, it is logical to push young players and invest in development, rather than living from one transfer window to the next.

That is why the development path is important. A young player must not be a project for headlines, but a real project for two or three years. And that is what is nurtured here, patience combined with hard work.

NegotiateWind:
How hard is it to maintain that direction when bad results or pressure come?

Miloš:
It is hard, because pressure in our league is constant. But that brings me back to that word: courage. If you choose youth, you must have the stomach to survive their mistakes. And when a player feels that the club trusts him and knows that he will not be sidelined after one mistake, he grows faster.

That is where IMT wins. The club endures development, and development later returns through results or transfers.

IMT promotes attacking football. The point is not only not to concede a goal. It is important for young players to learn the modern principles of football: tempo, intensity, ideas. And that is the model that creates transfers tomorrow. I am certain that IMT will have even more serious transfers. It is only a matter of time.

NegotiateWind:
What is more important to you in a player, talent or character?

Miloš:
Today, it is character. Modern football is physically brutal. Technique has to exist, but without mindset and character, you will not go far.

Miloš: Honestly, I think modern football has lost part of its soul. Everything is about duels, sprints, strength. I watch it more professionally than emotionally today.

NegotiateWind:
Where do you see IMT in the coming period?

Miloš:
In the next two years, I think the youth team can again reach the U19 Champions League.

In the next five years, I think IMT can reach the Conference League.

I do not think it is realistic to maintain third or fourth place as a standard in the near future, but the Conference League is realistic if the club continues to work this way. If it does not continue this way, or deviates from this idea, there is nothing.

But I am sure that will not happen. When you see the dedication of people in the club, an owner who follows everything from the pioneers to the first team, and when you see meaning in the work, then you know you are in the right place and that results will come.