Nenad Bjelica

Nenad Bjelica (born 20 August 1971) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player.

Club career
Born in Osijek, Bjelica started playing for a local club, Metalac Olt, in the 1989–90 season. He quickly moved to Osijek and spent almost four seasons there, before moving abroad to Spain.

Bjelica played for Albacete for four years, during which the team reached the Copa del Rey semi-final in the 1994–95 season. In 1996, he moved to Real Betis and was in the team that was the runner-up in the 1996–97 campaign. The next season, Bjelica spent at Las Palmas, but returned to Real Betis a year later. Due to injuries, he played very few games in this period, and would again spend a season at Las Palmas until the end of 1999.

Bjelica then returned home to Osijek for two seasons and recovered his form, playing with the team in three stages of the UEFA Cup. He then moved to Kaiserslautern in 2000, where he spent four seasons, until semi-retiring top-tier football in 2004. During the 2004–05 season, Bjelica played for Admira Wacker. After that, he played for the Austrian club Kärnten in the Second League before retiring on 30 June 2008.

International career
Bjelica made his debut for Croatia in a February 2001 friendly match against Austria and earned a total of nine caps. His final international was a June 2004 European Championship match against France in Portugal. He retired from the team in that year, at the same time the manager Otto Barić was replaced.

Managerial career
Bjelica began his coaching career on 15 September 2007 at Kärnten, as player-caretaker manager. On 1 July 2008, he signed a full managing contract, just a day after ending his playing career.

Bjelica was the head coach of Lustenau 07 from March to December 2009, as well as of WAC St. Andrä from May 2010 to June 2013. Bjelica moved to Austria Wien on 17 June 2013 as their new head coach, and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage, defeating the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb in the last round of qualification, with the club. Bjelica was sacked on 16 February 2014. As Austria Wien failed to qualify for the UEFA Europa League at the end of the season, his contract expired.

In June 2014, he was hired by Serie B side Spezia. On 30 August 2016, he was appointed head coach at Polish side Lech Poznań. On 10 May 2018, he was released from his contract at Lech.

On 15 May 2018, Bjelica signed a two-year contract with the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb, being appointed as their head coach. Four days later, he celebrated winning the league title, while on 23 May he won the Croatian Cup. On 8 November, Dinamo managed to qualify for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League knockout phase, defeating Spartak Trnava. On 18 September 2019, Bjelica led Dinamo in the club's inaugural match in the UEFA Champions League after two seasons, with a 4–0 home win against Atalanta. On 16 April 2020, following the sacking of the entire coaching staff by the club, it was announced that Dinamo terminated the contract with Bjelica.

In September 2020, after failing to win three opening games of their season, Croatian club Osijek sacked their head coach Ivica Kulešević and appointed Bjelica instead.

He was named the new head coach of Union Berlin on 26 November 2023. In May 2024, he was sacked.

Personal life
Bjelica is of paternal Montenegrin and maternal Croatian descent. In 1997, he married his wife Senka. The couple have two sons: Luka and Luan.

Player
Individual
 * Croatian Footballer of the Year: 2000

Manager
WAC St. Andrä
 * Austrian Second League: 2011–12

Dinamo Zagreb
 * Prva HNL: 2017–18, 2018–19
 * Croatian Cup: 2017–18
 * Croatian Super Cup: 2019

Individual
 * Ekstraklasa Coach of the Month: February 2017, March 2018
 * SN Sportsperson of the Year: 2019