Robert Kovač (; born 6 April 1974) is a Croatian professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former player who played as a centre-back. He was known for his ability with the ball and skill at dispossessing opponents. His older brother is football manager and former player

Niko Niko may refer to: People The given name is sometimes a short form of Nikola, Nikolas, Nikolaos or others. * Nikō (1253–1314), Japanese Buddhist disciple of Nichiren * Niko (musician), American musician active from 2002 * NiKo (born 199 ...

Club career

Early career

Kovač started his career in lower league clubs Rapide Wedding and

Hertha Zehlendorf The Hertha Zehlendorf is a German football club from the suburb of Zehlendorf in Berlin. The club is one of the largest football clubs in the country and has a strong youth department which has won two national youth championships. The depar ...

before making his Bundesliga debut with 1. FC Nürnberg in 1995. Regularly featuring in the first–eleven, Kovač attracted much attention to himself and was signed at the end of the season by

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is o ...

Bayer Leverkusen

He spent the next five seasons in Leverkusen without any significant success, as the club did not win any trophy during that period, although they were three times

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

runners–up.

Bayern Munich

After his contract expired he went to join reigning champions of 2000–01 season and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

title holders, Bayern Munich. In four seasons with Bayern he won two Bundesliga titles, two

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

titles and the 2001 Intercontinental Cup.

Juventus

On 15 July 2005, he signed for Juventus. He was one of the few first–team players that decided to stay in Juve following its demotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

. He made a total of 35 appearances and scored one goal before he moved back to Germany, this time for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

Borussia Dortmund

On 1 August 2007, he signed for Borussia Dortmund, alongside another Croatian national team star,

Mladen Petrić Mladen Petrić (; born 1 January 1981) is a retired Croatian professional footballer who played as a forward or striker. During his career, he played for Grasshopper, Basel, Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Fulham, West Ham United and Pana ...

, who signed for the club two months earlier. Kovač had an unsuccessful comeback to the Bundesliga and was sold to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

at the winter transfer window of 2008–09 season.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 29 January 2009, close to the January transfer window deadline, he signed 1 and a half year contract with Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb. The club previously tried to sign him in the summer of 2007, but failed to meet his demands. Borussia Dortmund were compensated with €450,000. In his debut season Kovač made 12 appearances in the league and two more in Croatian Cup. He started the 2009–10 season with a foot injury and missed all of Dinamo's matches in July and August, but returned to action at the start of the September. Kovač finished the season with a total of 22 appearances for Dinamo in all competitions, before it was officially announced on 1 June 2010 that he retired from active football.

International career

Kovač represented

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

in two World Cups, 2002 and 2006, and has also participated at two European Championships, 2004 and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. At World Cup 2006 he played well in defence, however after picking up a second yellow against Japan he missed the final group match against Australia through suspension. Without Kovač, Croatia struggled in defence with his replacement Tomas committing handball for Australia's first goal via penalty kick. Croatia eventually drew 2–2 with Australia but were eliminated from the tournament. With Croatia, Leverkusen, and Bayern, Kovač was teammates with his older brother

Niko Kovač Niko Kovač (; born 15 October 1971) is a Croatian professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Bundesliga club VFL Wolfsburg. Kovač was the long-standing captain of the Croatia national team until his retire ...

. He retired from the national team in the fall of 2009, having captained the team after his brother's retirement in 2008. His final international was an October 2009

World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match away against

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Coaching career

On 21 January 2013,

Igor Štimac Igor Štimac (; born 6 September 1967) is a Croatian football coach and former player who played as a centre back. He is the current head coach of the Indian national team. In his playing career, Štimac had three spells with Hajduk Split and ...

, the head coach of the

Croatia national football team The Croatia national football team ( hr, Hrvatska nogometna reprezentacija) represents Croatia in international football matches. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), the governing body for football in Croatia. It is a ...

, announced that Kovač, alongside his older brother

, would take over as the

Croatia national under-21 football team The Croatia national under-21 football team represents Croatia in association football matches for players aged 21 or under. Competition UEFA U-21 Championship ;Notes *OFF = Lost in play-offs. UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2023 UEFA ...

head coach. From October 2013 until September 2015, he was also an assistant manager to his brother, then the head coach of the Croatia senior team. On 1 July 2018, he became the assistant manager of Bayern Munich. Robert's older brother, Niko, brought Robert with him to Bayern when he took over as the manager of the club. On 3 November 2019, he and his older brother parted ways with the club. In July 2020, Kovač joined

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

as assistant coach, with Niko serving as manager.

Personal life

Kovač, along with his older brother

, was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

to a family of Bosnian Croat

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

from

Livno Livno ( sr-cyrl, Ливно, ) is a city and the administrative center of Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the river Bistrica in the southeastern edge of the Livno Fiel ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. He is married to a former Croatian model and Miss World 1995 first runner-up, Anica Kovač.

Career statistics

Honours

Bayern Munich *

: 2002–03, 2004–05 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

: 2002–03, 2004–05 * Intercontinental Cup: 2001 Juventus *

: 2006–07 Dinamo Zagreb * Prva HNL: 2008–09 * Croatian Cup: 2008–09

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovac, Robert 1974 births Living people Footballers from Berlin German people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent German people of Croatian descent Association football defenders Croatian footballers Croatia international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2004 players UEFA Euro 2008 players Hertha Zehlendorf players 1. FC Nürnberg players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players FC Bayern Munich footballers Juventus F.C. players Borussia Dortmund players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Serie A players Serie B players Croatian Football League players Croatian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy West German footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Italy German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco