This past fall, the 37-year-old was named the Team Manager and Head Coach of the club, which will make it’s debut in the amateur Premier Development League (PDL) in 2012.

Come the season, Savic will handle the first team on game-day and in training. In the meantime, he’s working closely with Team President Todd Short to fill the roster, and to build a winning club that embraces the best methods for player development. 

Savic, a former college All-American at Lindenwood University (St. Charles, MO), a professional player in Serbia for FK Cukaricki and FK Zeleznik and the former player/coach of the indoor Chicago Storm, actually has a history with the Inferno club. He coached the team to an improbable 2009 title in the Major Division of the National Soccer League of Chicago.

Short, who played for Savic with the Storm and with previous incarnations of the Inferno, said the Belgrade-native was his first choice to lead the PDL side.

"As a professional in Serbia as well as here in the US, Branko has seen his fair share on and off the field,” said Short about Savic, who was a player/coach for the 2010 USL-champion Storm. “He gets up in the morning and thinks about soccer. It’s in his blood. He is a no-nonsense character, and he commands the respect of players. He is a proven entity.”

All Short insisted of Savic was that the still able-bodied former star put his playing career on hold in order to concentrate on his duties in management.

The Inferno certainly will offer a challenge to both men. As a first-year franchise in the PDL’s Great Lakes Division, the Chicago club is being built from scratch to take on the established clubs in the division like the Michigan Bucks, Chicago Fire Premier, Cincinnati Kings and Toronto Lynx.

While some teams in the league are comprised almost exclusively of college players on summer break, Savic and Short are keen to take advantage of the league’s rule that allows teams to roster up to eight players over the age of 23, and are looking to add a handful of ex-professionals to the roster.

This philosophy isn’t designed to build a competitive advantage as much as it will give the club’s many college-age players a learning opportunity that rarely exists in the United States.

“We offer players an environment to come and play alongside ex-pros. That is key for young players trying to learn the game,” said Savic, who plans to use his many contacts within the game to identify available former professionals for the team. “If you build your team with 19 to 23-year-olds, how different is that than college?”

Savic continued: “In Europe, kids who are 18, 19, 20 are already pros and playing against established pros. That’s where we (at the Inferno) fit into the picture. Our players will be attending school, but in the summer we’ll be surrounding them with those ex-professionals to help them improve themselves. When they finish school, they can go into an MLS camp or to a professional club in another country and they already will have played alongside those older guys. It won’t be new to them.”

Savic spent the fall attending college soccer games looking to identify and recruit players for the Inferno’s first roster. The club is hoping to sign several players with ties to the Chicagoland area. Savic said he is looking for athletes who want to be part of a winning team, are willing to work hard to improve and who will project a positive image of the club within the community. The coach also is looking for players who are ambitious about their own careers.

“Some youth and amateur clubs are so focused on protecting their turf and holding onto their players as long as they can. We are different. We want to push our talent to the next level,” Savic said. “We don’t want a player who doesn’t think about playing professionally. If you want to play for the Inferno for the next five years, I don’t want you. I want a player hungry to get to the next level.”

Despite all the talk of individual achievement, Savic knows the best way for a soccer player to get noticed by scouts is by being part of a good team. In order to build a cohesive unit, the coach said he stresses team spirit and discipline, or the ability to play one’s role within the team structure.

“When I first meet with players, I make sure they understand we must have team spirit and discipline,” he said. “I wish there was a player who could singlehandedly take on 11 players, but there is no such person. You have to work yourself within the team. Everything else comes out of team spirit and discipline. If we have that, an individual’s talent, skills and ability is going to shine.”