Ljupko Petrović

Serbian footballer

Ljubomir "Ljupko" Petrović (; born 15 May 1947) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. He also holds a Bosnian passport. As a manager, Petrović's biggest success was winning the European Cup in the 1990–91 season with Red Star Belgrade.

Born in Brusnica Velika (a village near Bosanski Brod) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Petrović, Started playing for NK Darda and then moved to NK Osijek during most of his career. After his career at 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 Belgrade, with whom he won the 1991 European Cup. He has also managed Spanish side RCD Espanyol, Uruguayan C. A. Peñarol, Austrian Grazer AK (where he was dismissed after slapping Boban Dmitrović) 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. On 2 July 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 23 December 2008, he was appointed for the head coach of his former team FK Vojvodina from Novi Sad, title challengers in the Serbian Superliga for the 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 8 March 2009. In 2010 he coached Croatian side NK Lokomotiva Zagreb a feeding club of Croatian football giant GNK Dinamo Zagreb. In the summer of 2015 Petrović managed Litex Lovech for three matches, leading them to first place in the 2015–16 A PFG standings, but left the team in early August for family reasons. 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 were ordered off the pitch in a heated derby match against Levski Sofia held on 12 December. In May 2016, he was unveiled as the new manager of Levski Sofia, replacing Stoycho Stoev. He left Levski on 22 October 2016. After Levski he also managed Vietnemese club Thanh Hoa FC and Rwandan club APR FC. In December 2018, Petrović became a consultant at PFC CSKA Sofia. Since 21 July 2019 he is officially the head coach of PFC CSKA Sofia, replacing Dobromir Mitov who was demoted to assistant. In 2020, he returned to Vietnam to manage FLC Thanh Hóa, currently Đông Á Thanh Hóa once again for the 2021 V. League 1 season.

On 8 April 2014, Petrović was 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. 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. 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.

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

TeamFromToRecordGWDLWin %NK Osijek19851987FK Spartak Subotica19871988FK Vojvodina19881989FK Rad19901990Red Star Belgrade19901991RCD Espanyol19911991Club Atlético Peñarol19921992PAOK19921993Olympiacos F. C.19931994Red Star Belgrade19941996Grazer AK19961996FK Vojvodina19961997Shabab Al Ahli19981999Shanghai Shenhua F. C.19992000Levski Sofia20002001Beijing Guoan F. C.20022003PFC Litex Lovech20032004Red Star Belgrade20042004PFC Litex Lovech20052007OFK Beograd20082008Croatia Sesvete20082008FK Vojvodina20082009APR F. C.20142014PFC Litex Lovech20152015Levski Sofia20162016Dong A Thanh Hoa20172017APR F. C.20182018CSKA Sofia20192019Dong A Thanh Hoa20202022PFC Litex Lovech20232023Total