Perica Ognjenović

He began his professional career in 1994 at Red Star Belgrade, aged 17, and was quickly recognised as one of the most talented players in Europe. He played more than a hundred matches for Red Star, won the Yugoslav league and cup, and was one of the youngest captains in the club’s history.

In 1999 he joined Real Madrid, winning the Champions League in 2000.

After Madrid he played for clubs such as Kaiserslautern, Dynamo Kyiv and Angers.

With Yugoslavia he played at the 1998 World Cup in France.

He started coaching in 2015 with the Red Star U19 team.

In 2016 he was appointed deputy director of the Football Association of Serbia. During that time all of Serbia’s youth teams qualified for their European Championships, and the senior national team qualified as well.

In 2017 he became head coach of Serbia U17 and took the team to the 2018 U17 European Championship in Croatia.

In spring 2020 he took over FK Zvijezda 09 in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the lockdown that year kept him from helping the team hold on to its place.

In January 2023 he became head coach of FC Metalist Kharkiv, one of the biggest clubs in Ukraine.

As a coach he likes attacking football; his favourite formations are 4-3-3 and 3-5-2.

He pays close attention to the physical and psychological state of his squad. His philosophy is that the score can be positive or negative at any moment, but the team must always have a plan for how to respond.

He likes to make decisions and change the rhythm of the game with substitutions — not only when the team is losing, but also when it is winning. He pays attention to the whole squad: every player matters equally to him, from the starting eleven to the bench.