Panathinaikos FC announces the recruitment of coach Ivan Jovanovic, who has signed a one year contract with the Club.
Panathinaikos’ new coach was born on July, 8th 1962 in Loznitsa, former Yugoslavia. He started his football career in his home town and continued in the team of Rad, before being transferred to
FC Heraklis Thessaloniki where he played during ten years (1989-99) and concluded his career as a footballer.
He started his career as a coach when he was 39, training Niki Volos, when the team competed in the third division. He stayed there for a season before taking care of FC Heraklis. He sat on the bench of the team of Thessaloniki for the first time during 2002-03 season and repeated this responsibility in 2006-07, assuming the task in the middle of the season. He stayed for one year, till January 2008, before moving to APOEL Cyprus.
He worked for the Cypriot team twice. The first one from November 2003 till March 2005 and the second one from January 2008 till April 2013, then absenting voluntarily. Everyone adored him during all his tenures in APOEL, as the Cypriot club had an extraordinary success for this country’s football participating for two seasons in the Champions League’s competitions. In one of them (2011-12) APOEL reached the quarter finals playing against Real Madrid, gaining the first place in its group against Porto, Sachtar, Zenith and eliminating Lyon in the 16 teams round! Besides that he gained 4 championships, one Cup and 4 Super Cups! He was elected coach of the year in Cyprus for 6 times and was voted top Serbian coach once!
In the interval between his first tenure in APOEL and the second in Heraklis he coached the team of Panachaiki, Patras (when the team was competing in the second division) during 2005-06 season.
Leaving APOEL the Serbian trainer moved to the U.A.E. where he worked for Al Nasr FC. He stayed there for two tenures. The first one for three years (2013-16) and the second one for a season (2018-19), winning three trophies and getting till the quarter finals of the Asian Champions League.
In December 2019 he was hired to coach the National team of the United Arab Emirates. He stayed there only for four months and couldn’t seat on the bench of the National team because all the matches for the qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup were cancelled due to corona virus pandemic.
We welcome Ivan Jovanovic to Panathinaikos!
