Montenegrin football coach Nebojsa Jovović's Arab journey began in July 2012 from Kuwait, where he was an assistant to the recent Montenegrin coach Miodrag Radulović on the Kazma bench.
Exactly 12 years later, in July 2024, seven changed Arab countries, the same number of clubs, five trophies won, Jovović returns to where he started, now with a big door - he will take over the current champion, the oldest and biggest club in the country, Kuwait SC.
"Welcome", announced the popular "brigadiri" on the official website, along with an interesting caricature of Jovović, with trophies lined up.
"I'm overjoyed, the biggest Kuwaiti club, the fight for trophies and the Champions League. That's what I've been waiting for and what I'm looking forward to," Jovović said.
After four years in Qatar's Al Ahli, where he broke all the club's records for the length of service, he admits that he was "held back" by the fight for survival, which awaited him in Kor Fakan from the Emirates, which he successfully completed.
Now comes a very different challenge.
"This kind of challenge is my fuel, I'm continuing the Arab path and after 12 years I'm going back to where I started, to the big door. I want to leave Kuwait that way, and that's why I'm already breathing for the challenges that await me," said Jovović, who also led Hađer from Saudi Arabia, Jordan's Faiseli twice, then one of the biggest clubs in Africa, Egypt's Zamalek, Iraq's Shorta, Sfaxien from Tunisia, Al Ahli (Qatar) and Kor Fakan (UAE).
"Darko Lubarda, the goalkeeper coach, will be waiting for me at the club, and fitness coach Marko Jovanović and analyst Blažo Igumanović will be coming with me. I know most of the players, I have worked with some of them," says Jovović, who managed Kom, Sutjeska and Berane in Montenegro. , and was also the sports director of Budućnost.
Kuwait SC has been the country's champion 18 times, and has over 50 trophies. It is the first Kuwaiti club to win continental trophies, it celebrated three times in the Asian Cup (the European counterpart is the Europa League), in 2009, 2012 and 2013.
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