Igor Jovićević (; born 30 November 1973) is a Croatian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former professional footballer.

Playing career

After being labeled as the new

Zvonimir Boban Zvonimir Boban (; born 8 October 1968) is a Croatian former professional footballer who works at UEFA as the Chief of Football. A midfielder, Boban played most of his career for Italian club AC Milan with whom he won four Serie A titles and one ...

while playing in the youth team of the most successful Croatian club,

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

, with only 17 years he signed, in summer of 1991, a contract with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. His transfer cost was one million dollars, however, the contract was based on the fact that the Merengues, in case of lining him in the first team, would have to pay a total of five million, being that the probable cause of having him playing in the B squad. There, he was trained by

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo, Celta Vigo. Beníte ...

, among others, and had an opportunity of playing along some youngsters, like Raúl and Guti. On 11 June 1995, he gets injured while playing against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

with the Croatia national under-21 team. After having a one-year pause due to injury, he returned to Croatia to play with another club from the Croatian capital,

NK Zagreb Nogometni klub Zagreb (''Zagreb Football Club''), commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb (), is a Croatian football club based in the capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of Croatian footbal ...

. After that, he played with J. League Division 1 club Yokohama F. Marinos, Brazilian club

Guarani Futebol Clube Guarani Futebol Clube, colloquially called Guarani, is a Brazilian association football club in Campinas, São Paulo. Guarani is the only club not based in a state capital or coastal city to have won the top tier of the Brazilian Championsh ...

and a short spell in France with

FC Metz Football Club de Metz () is a Football in France, French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 1, the highest division in the French football league system, for the 2025–26 Ligue 1, ...

before moving to China to play with Shenyang Dongjin, a discrete passage in Ukraine with

Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv. In 2020–21 the club was reorganized and changed owner. During that period there existed two clubs with the same name, one at professional level competitio ...

before finishing his career in China, again, with a new knee ligaments injury, aged 32. After retiring, he returned to Spain, this time to

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the re ...

, where he owns a bar.

Managerial career

Karpaty Lviv

In 2010, Jovićević was named the transfer director of

. In the 2012–13 season, he managed the U21 squad, and in the 2013–14 season, he led the U19 squad. Following the dismissal of Oleksandr Sevidov in the summer of 2014, he was appointed, initially as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

, of the senior squad of the club, while in 2015, he was named the head coach.

Celje

On 10 October 2016, Jovićević took over

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

club

Celje Celje (, , ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. Th ...

. On 19 June 2017, he terminated the contract.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 20 July 2017, Jovićević took over Dinamo Zagreb II as the head coach, while on 1 July 2018, he was named the head coach of Dinamo Zagreb U19. Managing the U19 squad, he won two Croatian league championships, the

FIFA Youth Cup The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, and led the team in the final of the

Premier League International Cup The Premier League International Cup is an English football competition for under-23 teams from across Europe. It was designed to provide players in English Category One academies with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite Euro ...

, which they lost to

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. He also led the team to the quarter-finals in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

twice. On 22 April 2020, following the dismissal of

Nenad Bjelica Nenad Bjelica (; born 20 August 1971) is a Croatian professional Association football, football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb. Club career Born in Osijek, Bjelica st ...

, Jovićević was announced as the new head coach of

. He debuted as Dinamo manager in the 3–1 away win against

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

. On 6 July 2020, following the 0–2 away defeat against

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, Jovićević and Dinamo came to a mutual agreement on the early termination of his contract.

Dnipro-1

On 22 September 2020, following the dismissal of

Dmytro Mykhailenko Dmytro Stanislavovych Mykhaylenko (; born 13 July 1973) is a Ukrainian football manager and former player. He played as a defensive midfielder. His son Ivan is also a player, a forward; his older brother Oleksandr played for FC Zirka Kirovohra ...

, Jovićević was announced as the new head coach of Dnipro-1. He debuted as manager in the 4-1 defeat away against

FC Oleksandriya Football Club Oleksandriya (), commonly known as Oleksandriya, is a Ukrainian professional football club based in the city of Oleksandriya, Kirovohrad Oblast. Founded in 1990, the club plays in the Ukrainian Premier League. The year 1948 on the ...

Shakhtar Donetsk

On 14 July 2022, Jovićević was announced as the new head coach of

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

Al-Raed

On 9 July 2023, Jovićević was appointed as the manager of Saudi Pro League club

Al-Raed Al Raed Saudi Football Club ( ''Nādī ar-Rāʾid''; ) is a Saudi football club based in Buraidah, and the first of its kind in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. One of the club's notable founders is Abdulaziz Al-Aboudi. Established in 1954, Al R ...

Personal life

His father, Čedomir "Čedo" Jovićević (1952–2020) born in

Žabljak Žabljak (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Жабљак, ) is a small town in Montenegro in the Northern Montenegro, northern region. It has a population of 1,723. Žabljak is the seat of Žabljak Municipality (2011 population: 3,569). The town is in ...

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

, was the famous defender of

, playing ten years with the most successful Croatian club. His mother, Sanja, is from

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. Igor is married and has two sons: Filip and Marcos, both players of the Dinamo Zagreb Academy.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Shakhtar Donetsk *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

: 2024–25 *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

: 2024-2025 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Dinamo Zagreb U19 * U19 1. HNL: 2017–18, 2018–19 *

: 2018 *

Kvarnerska Rivijera Kvarnerska Rivijera is one of the oldest youth football tournaments in the world, first played in 1953. The tournament is organised by HNK Rijeka, a Croatian football club, and attracts clubs from across Europe and other continents. It is held eac ...

: 2019 Individual *

Manajer of the Month: 2020-21(October),

References

External links