Željko Zečević ( sr-cyr, Жељко Зечевић; born 21 October 1963) is a Serbian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach, who is the current head coach of

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departm ...

of the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league. The league consists of twelve teams, each qualified through their domestic competition, similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League. The league is a joint eff ...

. He is also the head coach of the Guinea national team since 2021.

Coaching career

Born in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

SR Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

(now

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

), Zečević started coaching youth teams in 1988 in his hometown. Zečević started coaching in Italy in 2000, as coach of the Amatori Sniadero Udine junior team. In the 2003–04 season, he made his debut with

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

of the C-1. From 2015 to 2017, he was the head coach of

Chabab Rif Al Hoceima Chabab Rif Al-Hoceima, also referred to as CRA, is a Moroccan football club based in Al Hoceima, a Riffian city in northern Morocco. The club was founded in 1953 and is best known for their 2010 promotion to the Botola Pro, the top tier league ...

in the Moroccan

Division Excellence The Division Excellence (DEX-H) is the top professional basketball league in Morocco. Founded in 1957, the league currently consists of 16 teams. The league is administered by the Royal Moroccan Basketball Federation (FRMBB). The current defendin ...

. In 2009, he left Italy to coach for

Sagesse SC Sagesse Sports Club (), known as Hekmeh ( ar, الحكمة) in Arabic, is a multi-sports club in Lebanon. History Hekmeh, or Club Sportif La Sagesse was founded in 1943, under the patronage of the Maronite father Boulos Kike, supported by his e ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. In 2010, Zečević signed with

Wydad AC Wydad Athletic Club ( ar, نادي الوداد الرياضي, ) commonly referred to as Wydad AC and known as Wydad, or simply as WAC, is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca. Wydad AC is best known for its professional Association footba ...

, his first African club. He would later spend time as the head coach of several teams on the continent. In 2019, Zečević signed as head coach of

of the Guinean

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

. He coached SLAC to their first-ever qualification for the

(BAL) in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

. For the 2022-23 season, he signed with AS Salé of the Moroccan

, returning after four years for a second stint.

National team coaching career

Zečević coached the Egypt national team at the

2009 FIBA AfroBasket AfroBasket 2009 was the 25th FIBA Africa Championship, played under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. At stake were the three berths allocated to Afr ...

and

2011 FIBA AfroBasket AfroBasket 2011 was the 26th FIBA Africa Championship, played under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. At stake is the berth allocated to Africa in th ...

. In February 2021, Zečević took over as head coach of the Guinea national team. He coached the team in the

2021 AfroBasket FIBA AfroBasket 2021 was the 30th edition of the FIBA AfroBasket, a men's basketball continental championship of Africa. The tournament was hosted by Rwanda for the first time. It was originally scheduled to take place between 17 and 29 August 2 ...

Head coaching record

BAL

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2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

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References

External links