Željko Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Жељко Петровић; born 13 November 1965) is a Montenegrin professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

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. As a player, he represented the FR Yugoslavia national team at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

Club career

Budućnost

Petrović made his professional debut with Budućnost in 1986 under manager Milan Živadinović. In Petrović's second and third season at Budućnost under manager Stanko Poklepović, the team included the likes of Dejan Savićević, Branko Brnović, Anto Drobnjak, Predrag Mijatović and Niša Saveljić. During Petrović's time at Budućnost, the team finished in seventh place in the 1986–87 season, in ninth place in the 1987–88 season, fourteenth in the 1988–89 season, and tenth in the 1989–90 season.

Dinamo Zagreb

Petrović moved to Dinamo Zagreb in 1990, where he played as a right-back. In June 1991, Dinamo changed their name to HAŠK Građanski. In HAŠK Građanski's short 1991–92 UEFA Cup campaign, Petrović scored all three of HAŠK Građanski's goals over two legs played against Trabzonspor. He scored two penalties in the first leg played on 17 September 1991, which HAŠK lost 3–2 to Trabzonspor. He scored another goal in the second leg played on 2 October 1991, which HAŠK tied 1–1. In spite of Petrović's goalscoring form, HAŠK were eliminated from the UEFA Cup losing to Trabzonspor on aggregate.

Sevilla

Petrović joined Sevilla in November 1991, with his transfer from HAŠK Građanski costing the Spanish team 500,000 DM. HAŠK Građanski had agreed on Petrović's transfer as part of a package with Davor Šuker, who joined Sevilla simultaneously. At the time,

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

teams could field only up to four foreigners on the pitch, and Sevilla already had two foreign starters in Iván Zamorano and Pablo Bengoechea. With the addition of Šuker, Petrović was meant to be Sevilla's fourth foreign starter, although he initially enjoyed little playing time. Gradually, manager Víctor Espárrago began bringing him off the bench, and in a breakthrough performance, Petrović made an assist in Sevilla's 1–0 win against Real Murcia in the 1992 Copa del Rey Round of 16. On 22 March 1992, Petrović scored his only goal in a league match with Real Burgos, with Sevilla winning 3–2. However, after the departure of Espárrago, a markedly dry spell followed, especially when Sevilla signed Diego Maradona in the summer of 1992. Therefore, he was quick to sign for Dutch club FC Den Bosch that summer.

Den Bosch and Waalwijk

Petrović joined FC Den Bosch in 1992 while his father was living in nearby

Heusden Heusden () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the south of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Do ...

as a guest worker. This circumstance seemed to be a deciding factor in his move to Den Bosch, as it was widely regarded that he could have easily played for a more competitive team. Den Bosch director Chris van der Laar commented that Petrović was "too good for Den Bosch". In spite of Petrović's good reception, Den Bosch struggled in the 1992–93 season and ended up relegated back to the second tier at the end of the season. After a 5–0 loss against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

in May 1993, Den Bosch manager Hans van der Pluijm noted that " etrovićis playing three classes better than the rest of the team." He was eager to join RKC Waalwijk in 1994. It was at this club which he excelled as an attacking right-back, and he scored 13 goals in total of 2 seasons before joining Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven in 1996.

PSV

Petrović joined

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

in the summer of 1996. He was a regular starter during the 1996–97 season, when PSV won the Eredivisie that season under manager

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...

. In his second season at the club, however, he proved a difficult player to manage and he was also involved in a spat with team captain Arthur Numan. Towards the end of Petrović's time at PSV, Advocaat was critical of his

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...

habits. In the fall of 1997, Petrović accepted a lucrative offer from the

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

, which estranged him from the rest of the club. He insisted that he did not wish to leave PSV, but that the offer could not be ignored since ten of his relatives were living off of his money in

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. Petrović played a total of 35 games for PSV. He played his last game for PSV on 5 November 1997, in a Champions League match against Newcastle United at St James' Park.

Urawa Red Diamonds

In 1997, he moved to Japan to play for Urawa Red Diamonds before returning to RKC Waalwijk in 2000 where he finished his playing career.

International career

Petrović made his debut for the national team of Yugoslavia on 12 September 1990 in a match against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Yugoslavia was subsequently banned from the Euro 1992, the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and the Euro 1996 due to FIFA suspending Yugoslavia following the international sanctions against Yugoslavia. Petrović would play for Yugoslavia again five years after his debut, for the qualification to the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Death threat

Petrović was a regular of the Yugoslavia national team throughout the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification. On 28 October 1997, the night before the first leg of the qualifying play-off against Hungary, Petrović received a death threat by an anonymous phone caller. The caller gave Petrović twelve hours to leave Yugoslavia before being killed. In the time preceding the death threat, Petrović had been subject to a whispering campaign that suggested he once played for the Croatia national team during the

breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...

, before Croatia became an official FIFA member. Petrović strongly denied this, and teammate Savo Milošević accused some journalists of jeopardizing Petrović's life by spreading fake news about him. Petrović went on to play for Yugoslavia at the

. After the rumors were spread, Petrović took several opportunities to explain how the media identified him. When a Dutch journalist asked Petrović about his nationality considering the

, Petrović insisted on his identity as a Yugoslav. He explained himself with the following:

Managerial career

On 21 August 2006, Petrović was appointed as the new manager of Portuguese team Boavista. In his first match as manager, Boavista won 3–0 against Benfica. However, he resigned in October 2006 after only a month and a half in charge. The following 2007–08 season Petrovic managed RKC Waalwijk to a second place in the Dutch 2nd division and failed to gain promotion to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

. In the 2008–09 season he was

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany and England, as well as earning three caps wi ...

's assistant at

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. On 28 July 2010, West Ham United confirmed Petrović as the assistant manager to manager Avram Grant. On 23 November 2010, West Ham parted company with Petrović after less than four months. Upon his departure he made controversial comments about the Premier League questioning its quality. In February 2010, Petrovic was named assistant to manager Guus Hiddink at Anzhi Makhachkala. On 17 March 2015, Petrović was named the assistant to manager

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, but was sacked on 4 October later that year. He became assistant to manager Advocaat once more when he joined him at

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

in 2018.

Botev Plovdiv

In the beginning of June 2019, Botev Plovdiv introduced Petrović as the new manager of the club. Following his recommendations the club signed Marko Pervan, Philippe van Arnhem and Rodney Klooster. After a long run of poor results, on 16 October, Petrović was sacked. Shortly after that van Arnhem and Klooster were also released. In 12 games under his guidance Botev Plovdiv won only twice, achieved three draws and lost seven matches, last four of which in a row. The next Botev Plovdiv manager achieved seven wins in a row with the same squad attributing to the competency of Petrović.

Inter Zaprešić

In the beginning of January 2020, Inter Zaprešić introduced Petrović as their new manager. On 10 April 2020, following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Petrović terminated the contract with the club. He was appointed assistant to Advocaat again at

in summer 2020.

Iraq

After the resignation of

in November 2021 as manager of the Iraq national team, Petrović took over on a caretaker basis. He would coach Iraq at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup and the

final round A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the World Cup. In the last seconds of his first match as head coach against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, which ended in a 1–1 draw, Petrović entered the field to designate who would kick the penalty. He was sacked on 2 February 2022.

Zrinjski Mostar

On 5 January 2024, Petrović was appointed manager of Bosnian Premier League club Zrinjski Mostar. He was victorious in his first match in charge as Zrinjski beat Slavija Sarajevo in the Bosnian Cup second round on 10 February 2024. The team drew 0–0 away against Željezničar in his first league match as manager on 17 February. In his first ever Mostar derby, Petrović's side defeated rivals Velež on 13 April 2024. On 23 May 2024, Petrović won his first major trophy as a manager after Zrinjski beat Borac Banja Luka 2–0 on aggregate in the Bosnian Cup final. On 20 June 2024, it was announced by Zrinjski that Petrović had left the club by mutual consent.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial

Honours

Player

PSV *

: 1996–97 * Johan Cruyff Shield:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Manager

Zrinjski Mostar * Bosnian Cup: 2023–24

Notes

References

External links