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 (appro ...

coach, who is the current head coach of AS Salé of the Moroccan

Division Excellence The Division Excellence (DEX-H) is the top professional basketball league in Morocco. Founded in 1934, the league currently consists of 12 teams. The league is administered by the Royal Moroccan Basketball Federation (FRMBB). The current defendin ...

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

Coaching career

Born in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

SR Serbia The Socialist Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Социјалистичка Република Србија, Socijalistička Republika Srbija), previously known as the People's Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / " ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

(now

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), Zečević started coaching youth teams in 1988 in his hometown. He was scouted for his coaching potential by senior coaches at age 24. 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 (, ; ; , 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 ...

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 Al Hoceima () is a city in the north of Morocco, on the northern edge of the Rif Mountains and on the Mediterranean coast. It is the capital city ...

in the Moroccan

. In 2009, he left Italy to coach for

Sagesse SC Sagesse Sports Club (), known as Hekmeh () in Arabic, is a multi-sports club supported primarily by the Maronite Christian community. History Hekmeh, or Club Sportif La Sagesse was founded in 1943, under the patronage of the Maronite father Bo ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. In 2010, Zečević signed with

Wydad AC Wydad Athletic Club (, ), often known outside Morocco as Wydad Casablanca, is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca. Wydad AC is best known for its professional Association football, football team that competes in Botola, the top tier of th ...

, 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

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, United States. Founded in 1962, the laboratory is now sponsored ...

of the Guinean

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

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

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Each season typically r ...

(BAL) in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. For the 2023–24 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 and 2011 FIBA AfroBasket. In February 2021, Zečević took over as head coach of the Guinea national team. He coached the team in the 2021 AfroBasket.

Head coaching record

BAL

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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References

External links