Slaven Bilic says guiding West Brom back to the Premier League gives him as much pride as managing his country.
The Baggies survived final-night nerves as they drew 2-2 with QPR and nearest challengers Brentford lost 2-1 to Barnsley.
It meant Albion, who lost in last season’s play-off semi-finals, were promoted from the Sky Bet Championship by two points – 10 points behind champions Leeds – and ended their two-year top-flight exile.
Callum Robinson had put the hosts 2-1 up only for Ebere Eze to deny them victory. Ryan Mannings opened the scoring for Rangers with Grady Diangana levelling.
Bilic took Croatia to two European Championships and insisted reaching the Premier League in his first season at the Baggies was a similar feeling.
He said: “It’s at the top (of his achievements). You don’t know how exhausting it was this season. You can’t imagine how proud and happy I am.
“The players have been asked and challenged every game, it’s a very high level.
“It was important we came here and showed the appropriate level of commitment. The players deserve a lot of credit.
“We’re happy, teams have come here and if you’re not careful you can get badly hurt. The players have worked hard on the training ground and got the result they deserve to.
“The players deserve enormous credit, we’ve had a big overhaul and if you take Geoff Cameron out we have an average age of 23.
“Eze is a very special player, I’m loath to talk about individuals but he has worked so hard. It’s easy to distract the young players with headlines but I’m delighted in the manner he has dealt with them.”
