Ivan Leko (born 7 February 1978) is a Croatian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is currently head coach

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

side KAA Gent.

Club career

Leko started his career with his hometown club

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

and played there for several seasons, before moving to Spain to join

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

. In his early senior years, he was loaned to

HNK Trogir HNK Trogir is a Croatian football club based in town of Trogir on the Croatian coast. Trogir plays home matches at Igralište Batarija. History HNK Trogir was founded in 1912. In 2009 the club fell into financial difficulties and resigned ...

. In January 2005, Leko returned for a brief stint with Hajduk; in the summer he joined

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

. On 15 January 2009, he decided to sign a contract for

Germinal Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Antwerpen Club (), simply known as Beerschot AC, was a Belgian association football, football club based in southern Antwerp. Beerschot played in the Belgian Pro League from Belgian First Division 1999–2000, 1999–2000 ...

. After his spell in Antwerp, he ended his career at

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

International career

Leko made his debut for

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in a June 1999 Korea Cup match against

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, coming on as a 65th-minute substitute for Mario Cvitanović, and earned a total of 13 caps, scoring no goals. He was called up to the squad to participate in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

, but played no part in the tournament, as Croatia exited in the group stage. His final international was a June 2006 friendly against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Managerial career

Leko made his debut as a manager in 2014, with

OH Leuven Oh, OH, or Oh! is an interjection, often proclaiming surprise (emotion), surprise. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * Oh! (Girls' Generation album), ''Oh!'' (Girls' Generation album), 2010 * Oh! (ScoLoHoFo album), ''Oh!'' (S ...

, but he managed club for a season. In 2015, he became an assistant manager of Greek side

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

under the coaching staff of Croatian manager

Igor Tudor Igor Tudor (born 16 April 1978) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who currently manages Serie A club Juventus. Capable of playing either as a defender or defensive midfielder, Tudor spent most of his playing career a ...

, who was sacked in 2016. For the 2016–17 season, he managed

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium. With more than 41,500 inhabitants, it is on ...

; for the next two seasons, 2017–18 and 2018–19, Leko was the manager of

. He celebrated Jupiler Pro League and

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

in his first season in Brugge. Also, Leko won the title of Professional Manager of the Year. In October 2018, Belgian police interrogated him for corruption investigation. In May 2019,

and Leko parted ways. The 41-year-old coach had been with the club since 2017. On 1 June 2019, he was appointed at his new club,

Al Ain Al Ain () is a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the seat of the administrative division of the Al Ain Region. The city is Oman–United Arab Emirates border, bordered to the east by the Omani town of Al-Buraimi. Al A ...

. In December 2019, Leko left club

after a disastrous home defeat against Al Dhafra. Both sides had agreed to end their cooperation after five months of poor play. On 20 May 2020, Leko was appointed the manager of Royal Antwerp. Taking over the team from Laszlo Bölöni, he led the team to win their first

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

since 1992, with a 1–0 win against his former side Club Brugge in the final. This earned Antwerp a qualification in the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

for the first time in the club's history, where they were drawn in Group J against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

LASK Linz Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

and

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

. Leko led the team to a surprising second place finish in the group, with four wins and two losses, culminating in a 1–0 home victory against Tottenham on 29 October; as a result, the team qualified for the round of 32, where they were drawn against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

. In December 2020, Leko left Royal Antwerp and moved to Shanghai Port, where he took up his new post with the Chinese team, under a two-year contract worth five million euros. In February 2021, Leko was introduced as the new head coach of Shanghai Port at the SAIC Motor Pudong Arena. On 31 December 2022, he returned to Croatia to coach his former club Hajduk Split; however, he was dismissed on 23 October 2023. On 4 January 2024, he became head coach of Belgian side

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

Investigation

In October 2018, while at Club Brugge, Leko was interrogated by Belgian police as part of a corruption investigation. In the subsequent court case, the judge demanded to know why Leko had received a payment from Dejan Veljkovic's Cypriot account in 2015. In June 2019, Leko was interrogated all day as part of the investigation into fraud in Belgian football, but was later released.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Hajduk Split *

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

: 2000–01, 2004–05 * Croatian Cup: 1999–2000 Málaga *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

: 2002 Club Brugge *

: 2006–07 * Belgian Supercup: 2005 Lokeren *

: 2011–12

Manager

Club Brugge * Jupiler Pro League: 2017–18 *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Antwerp *

: 2019–20 Hajduk Split * Croatian Cup: 2022–23 Individual * Professional Manager of the Year: 2017–18

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leko, Ivan 1978 births Living people Footballers from Split, Croatia Croatian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players HNK Hajduk Split players HNK Trogir players Málaga CF players Club Brugge KV players Beerschot A.C. players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Croatian Football League players La Liga players Belgian Pro League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Croatian football managers Oud-Heverlee Leuven managers PAOK FC non-playing staff Sint-Truidense V.V. managers Club Brugge KV managers Al Ain FC managers Royal Antwerp F.C. managers Shanghai Port F.C. managers HNK Hajduk Split managers Standard Liège managers UAE Pro League managers Chinese Super League managers Croatian Football League managers Croatian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Croatian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in China Croatian expatriate sportspeople in China 21st-century Croatian sportsmen