Ljupko Petrović

Ljupko Petrović

Ljupko Petrović during his time at Litex Lovech
Personal information
Full name Ljubomir Petrović
Date of birth (1947-05-15) 15 May 1947
Place of birth Brusnica Velika, SFR Yugoslavia
Playing position Forward
Club information
Current team
Litex Lovech (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1979 Osijek
1979–1981 Buffalo Stallions (indoor) 70 (79)
1981–1982 Kansas City Comets (indoor) 25 (15)
1982 Phoenix Inferno (indoor) 15 (8)
Teams managed
1982–1984 Osijek (youth)
1984 Espanyol (assistant)
1984–1987 Osijek
1987–1988 Spartak Subotica
1987 Yugoslavia U18 (assistant)
1988 Yugoslavia U21
1988–1990 Vojvodina
1990 Rad
1990–1991 Red Star Belgrade
1991 Espanyol
1992 Peñarol
1992–1993 PAOK
1993 Olympiacos
1994–1996 Red Star Belgrade
1996 Grazer AK
1996–1997 Vojvodina
1998–1999 Al-Ahli Dubai
1999–2000 Shanghai Shenhua
2000–2001 Levski Sofia
2002–2003 Beijing Guoan
2003–2004 Litex Lovech
2004 Red Star Belgrade
2005–2007 Litex Lovech
2008 OFK Belgrade
2008 Croatia Sesvete
2008–2009 Vojvodina
2010–2011 Lokomotiva
2011–2013 Taraz
2015 APR FC
2015 Litex Lovech
2015 Litex Lovech

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (goals)

Ljubomir "Ljupko" Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Љубомир Петровић Љупко; born 15 May 1947) is a Bosnian Serb[1][2] former football player. He was the winner of the European Cup in 1991 with Red Star. He was most recently the manager of Litex Lovech.

Biography

Born in Brusnica Velika village near Bosanski Brod, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia, Petrović played for NK Osijek during most of his career. After his career at NK Osijek he also spent some time in the United States.

As a manager, he has been in charge of NK Osijek, FK Spartak Subotica, FK Rad, FK Vojvodina, and finally Red Star, with whom he won the 1991 European Cup. He has also managed Spanish RCD Espanyol, Uruguayan C.A. Peñarol, Austrian Grazer AK and Chinese Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan. He had another two spells at Red Star before moving to Bulgaria in the 2000s to coach PFC Levski Sofia and later PFC Litex Lovech. He came back to Serbia in March 2008 to become the manager of OFK Beograd, but he resigned from this position one month later. July 2, 2008, Petrović became the head coach of Croatian First League team Croatia Sesvete, thus becoming the first Serbian head coach of a Croatian first division team after the Yugoslav wars. On December 23, 2008 he was appointed for the head coach of his former team FK Vojvodina from Novi Sad, title challengers in the Serbian Superliga for 2008-09 season. Yet, after gaining only one point in the first two matches of the second part of the season, he resigned from this position on March 8, 2009. As of 2010 he is coached Croatian side NK Lokomotiva a youth division of Croatian football giant NK Dinamo Zagreb. In the summer of 2015 Petrović managed Litex Lovech for three matches, leading them to first place in the 2015/2016 A PFG standings, but left the team in early August for family reasons.[3] In early December he returned to the team from Lovech once again after the position of manager was vacated by Laurențiu Reghecampf. Petrović guided them to the 1/2 finals of the Bulgarian Cup. However, it eventually turned out to be another short-lived appointment for the Serbian head coach, as Litex were expelled from the A PFG by the Bulgarian Football Union after their players was ordered off the pitch in a heated derby match against Levski Sofia held on 12 December.[4][5]

FK Sarajevo controversy

Petrović was on the 8th of April 2014 [6] announced as the successor of the recently sacked Croatian manager Robert Jarni as the head of the FK Sarajevo team. However, only two days after, a picture of the manager and deceased Serbian paramilitary commander Arkan erupted in the Bosnian media depicting Petrović holding a weapon while instructed by the war criminal.[7] This resulted in a hurried press conference where the FK Sarajevo board of members announced that no contract would be signed with Petrović. The manager himself agreed to the decision, citing the possibility of strained working conditions after the unexpected publication. He however claimed no involvement in the Yugoslav wars nor the paramilitary activities of Arkan.[8] Petrović managed FK Sarajevo for only one day, conducting a single training with the players. The authenticity of the photo has later been brought to doubt.[9]

Personal life

Petrović is married to Snežana with whom he has two children: son Srđan and daughter Svetlana. He also has two grandchildren: Nikola and Anastasija.

Honours

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.