Chedomir Janevski, the former manager of clubs such as Club Brugge and Crvena Zvezda, will be unveiled as the new manager of Macedonia.

The 51-year-old Janevski will be officially announced as the new manager of Macedonian later in the week.  New Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) President Ilcho Gjorgjioski chose Janevski over Goce Sedloski, who served as interim manager in the Lithuania friendly, to lead Macedonia heading into the 2014 World Cup qualifications, starting next month with road fixtures against Croatia and Scotland.

The appointment of Chedomir Janevski is not surprising since he was considered one of the top favorites to take over from the departing John Toshack.  Janevski lives in Belgium but he is expected to reside in Macedonia during his stint as manager of the national team.  Chedomir, a defender in his playing days, spent most of his club career in Macedonia and Belgium before opting to enter the coaching ranks after retirement.

He has briefly managed the likes of Belgian side Club Brugge and Serbian club Crvena Zvezda.  Interestingly, both Belgium and Serbia are in Macedonia’s group for the 2014 World Cup qualifications.  Janevski was currently without a club as the last two teams that he managed both hailed from Cyprus in Enosis and Ethnikos Achnas.  One of his former players at Enosis, goalkeeper Petar Miloshevski (who also collected 59 caps for Macedonia), was recently named director of the national team.  According to reports, one of his assistants on the coaching staff will be Ilija Najdoski, a former teammate of Janevski at Vardar who also won the 1991 UEFA Cup trophy while playing with Crvena Zvezda together with another Macedonian great in Darko Panchev.

Current national team player Ivan Trichkovski has credited Janevski for resurrecting his career after he took him on loan to Enosis during the 2009-2010 season.  At that time, Ivan was out of favor at Crvena Zvezda and was facing an uncertain future, but Janevski took him on loan and Trichkovski’s solid season resulted in a permanent transfer to APOEL during the summer of 2010.

At the last club that he managed, Ethnikos Achnas, Janevski mostly deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation.  It is still unclear, however, whether the new Macedonian manager plans on going with that formation or stick with the 5 defender setup in a 5-2-3 formation that was fielded by both John Toshack and then interim manager Goce Sedloski in the recent Lithuania friendly.