Vladimir Petković

Early life

Petković was born in Sarajevo in 1963. He is naturalized Swiss of Bosnian Croat descent. and holds Swiss, Croatian, and Bosnian passports. Both of his parents worked as educational workers so they changed many schools and because of that family moved frequently. First they lived in Vrelo Bosne and then, from when he was 5 years old, in Hadžići near Sarajevo.

Playing career

A midfielder with good technique, Petković started playing football in Ilidža as an eleven-year-old before joining the youth sector of his hometown side FK Sarajevo youth as a fifteen-year-old.

He remained at FK Sarajevo and began his professional career there in the early 1980s. Petković made only a handful of appearances in a strong Sarajevo side led on the pitch by Bosnia's greatest ever player, Safet Sušić. Petković was a part of the Sarajevo side that won the 1984–85 Yugoslav First League, making only two league appearances for them. His time at Sarajevo was interrupted by two brief stints elsewhere, first a successful time with Rudar Prijedor, where Petković found a vein of scoring form, and then a season in the Yugoslav Second League with Slovenian side Koper, who finished last and were relegated.

Petković emigrated from Yugoslavia in 1987, leaving FK Sarajevo and moving permanently to Switzerland, where he joined second division club FC Chur 97. After a season with Chur, Petković moved to the Swiss top division, joining a strong FC Sion side. Sion managed a third-place finish in the Nationalliga but Petković left the club at the end of the season after only managing six league appearances.

After leaving Sion, Petković moved back into the lower tiers, first joining FC Martigny-Sports before returning to his first Swiss club, FC Chur 97. Petković enjoyed a career as a regular goalscoring midfielder in the Swiss second division, including two more stints at Bellinzona and Lugano.

Petković completed his playing career as a player-coach with Bellinzona and Malcantone Agno, the latter which later merged with financially stricken Lugano.

Managerial career

After his retirement from playing, he became a coach and his first job was player-manager at AC Bellinzona in 1997. In 2004, he took over the reins at Lugano before returning to Bellinzona for the fourth time in his career, where he led the club to the 2008 Swiss Cup final, only to lose out to FC Basel, and promotion to the Swiss Super League. At the beginning of the 2008–09 season, he was appointed as manager of Young Boys. After taking charge at the club, Petković installed a 3–4–3 formation and took his Bern side to a second-placed league finish. After two more seasons with Young Boys, he was sacked after a 1–1 draw against Luzern on 7 May 2011. The club placed a distant third in the league behind their rivals Zürich and Basel.

In 2011, he became new manager of Turkish side Samsunspor. He resigned from that position in January 2012 with the club in the relegation zone. On 15 May 2012 he was named the new temporary manager of Sion until the end of the 2011–12 season.

S.S. Lazio

On 2 June 2012, Petković became the new manager of Italian side Lazio in Serie A. With Lazio, he won Coppa Italia in 2013, thanks to Senad Lulić's goal in 71' of the game.

On 23 December 2013, it was announced Petković was to succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld as the manager of Switzerland national football team after the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As a result of this president of Lazio Claudio Lotito initially dismissed Petkovic as the coach of the club as he was not aware that Petković was in negotiations with Swiss Football Association over his future at the time. However decision has not yet been made over Petković's future with the club with rumours indicating he is to be replaced by Edoardo Reja from next match day. Petković was sacked as Lazio manager on 4 January 2014.

Managerial statistics

Player

Manager

Charitable work

While living in Switzerland, Petković worked for Caritas Ticino, a Catholic relief development and social service organisation, for 5 years.