Mato Neretljak (born 3 June 1979) is a Croatian professional football manager and former professional player who is the manager of First League of FBiH club Zvijezda Gradačac.
 Neretljak with Omiya Ardija in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 3 June 1979 | ||
| Place of birth | Orašje, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Zvijezda Gradačac (manager) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| –1999 | Orašje | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1999–2000 | Orašje | 23 | (2) |
| 2000–2002 | Osijek | 47 | (3) |
| 2002–2005 | Hajduk Split | 77 | (4) |
| 2005–2008 | Suwon Bluewings | 110 | (17) |
| 2009–2010 | Omiya Ardija | 59 | (11) |
| 2011 | Suwon Bluewings | 23 | (7) |
| 2012 | Hajduk Split | 12 | (1) |
| 2012–2014 | Rijeka | 25 | (1) |
| 2013–2014 | → Zadar (loan) | 24 | (0) |
| Total | 400 | (46) | |
| International career | |||
| 2000–2001 | Croatia U21 | 8 | (0) |
| 2001–2006 | Croatia | 10 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2015–2016 | Orašje | ||
| 2016–2017 | Metalleghe-BSI | ||
| 2017–2018 | Orašje | ||
| 2018–2019 | GOŠK Gabela | ||
| 2019 | Orašje | ||
| 2020–2021 | Zvijezda Gradačac | ||
| 2022 | Rudeš | ||
| 2023–2024 | Zvijezda Gradačac | ||
| 2024 | Zrinski Osječko | ||
| 2024– | Zvijezda Gradačac | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Club career
editNeretljak started his professional career in 1999 with HNK Orašje. In 2000, he transferred to NK Osijek for which he played until 2002.
Then he transferred to Hajduk Split and spent three seasons with the club before leaving it for South Korean club Suwon Samsung Bluewings in 2005.
In 2009, he moved to Japanese club Omiya Ardija.
On 23 May 2012, he signed for HNK Rijeka on a two-year contract. In 2014, he announced his retirement.
In his career, he won many titles with Hajduk Split, Suwon Bluewings and even one Herzeg-Bosnia Cup with Orašje.
International career
editNeretljak won eight international caps for the Croatia U21 national team in 2000 and 2001. While still playing for the U21 national team, he also made his full international debut for Croatia in a friendly match against Greece on 25 April 2001 in Varaždin, where he came on as a substitute for Boris Živković in the 88th minute.
His competitive international debut for Croatia came on 15 November 2003 in the UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying play-offs against Slovenia, where he played the entire 90 minutes in the first leg in Zagreb, which ended in a 1-1 draw. On 18 February 2004, he scored his only international goal for Croatia in their 2-1 defeat against Germany in Split. He was also part of the Croatian squad at the UEFA Euro 2004 finals in Portugal, but did not appear in any of the team's three group matches before they were knocked out of the tournament.
After the UEFA Euro 2004 finals, he only appeared in 4 international friendlies for Croatia, including both of their matches at the 2006 Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong. He won a total of 10 international caps for the national team, 9 of which were in friendly matches. His final international was a February 2006 Carlsberg Cup match against hosts Hong Kong.[1]
Managerial career
editNeretljak started off his managerial career after being appointed as manager of HNK Orašje in 2015. He managed Orašje until the end of the 2015–16 First League of FBiH season, where Orašje made a fantastic result coming in the third place.
On 14 November 2016, Neretljak was named the new manager of NK Metalleghe-BSI.[2] He left Metalleghe on 1 June 2017, after failing not to get relegated in the 2016–17 Premier League season.[3]
19 days after leaving Metalleghe, Neretljak came back to and became the new manager of Orašje once again.[4] In that First League FBiH season, Orašje finished in the 5th place. After the last game of the season in which Orašje beat NK Travnik 3–2, Neretljak stuck to his word and left the club after the end of the season.[5]
On 28 September 2018, after Feđa Dudić got sacked, Neretljak was named the new manager of Bosnian Premier League club GOŠK Gabela.[6] In his first game as club's manager, on 30 September, the club unexpectedly beat Željezničar Sarajevo on Grbavica Stadium 1–2, with a 90+5th-minute penalty goal that won the game for GOŠK, with Mirsad Ramić scoring the goal from the penalty spot.[7] On 12 March 2019, Neretljak left GOŠK after making a series of bad results with the club.[8]
In July 2019, it was announced that Neretljak became the new manager of Orašje for the third time in his career.[9] A few days later, he also accepted a job offer from the Croatian Football Federation as an assistant manager for the Croatia national under-20 team under manager Ognjen Vukojević.[10][11] He left Orašje only a few months after coming back to the club because of losing five out of six matches in the league and getting to last place.[12]
On 4 October 2020, Neretljak was named new manager of Zvijezda Gradačac.[13] In his first game as Zvijezda manager, Neretljak led his team to a league win over Čapljina.[14] His first loss as Zvijezda manager was against Radnik Hadžići also in a league match on 18 October 2020.[15] Neretljak left the club in October 2021.
In July 2022, Neretljak was appointed as manager of Croatian Second League club NK Rudeš, ahead of the 2022–23 season. In mid September 2022, five fixtures into the season, when Rudeš were second in the table behind HNK Vukovar 1991 only on goal difference, Neretljak was sacked due to unsatisfactory early performance.[16]
Career statistics
editInternational goals
edit- Results list Croatia's goal tally first.
| Date | Venue | Opponent | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 February 2004 | Split, Croatia |  Germany |
1–2 | Friendly match |
Honours
editPlayer
editOrašje
- Herzeg-Bosnia Cup: 1999–2000
Hajduk Split
Suwon Bluewings
Individual
editReferences
edit- ^ "Player Database". EU-football. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ A. Pašić (14 November 2016). "Bivši hrvatski reprezentativac preuzeo Metalleghe BSI" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (1 June 2017). "Mato Neretljak više nije trener Metalleghea" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (1 June 2017). "Mato Neretljak više nije trener Metalleghea" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (2 June 2018). "Neretljak 'digao sidro': To je to, dosta od mene..." (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (28 September 2018). "Mato Neretljak novi šef struke NK GOŠK" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
- ^ M. Šljivak (30 September 2018). "Muk na Grbavici: GOŠK odnio tri boda!" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
- ^ A. Lendo (12 March 2019). "Neretljak podnio ostavku na mjesto trenera NK GOŠK" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ E. Škorić (5 July 2019). "Mato Neretljak pronašao novi angažman u BiH" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ^ MAKARANIN DESNA RUKA IZBORNIKU U-20 REPREZENTACIJE HRVATSKE, makarsko-primorje.com, 18 July 2019
- ^ Hrvatska U-20 okuplja se po prvi put pod Vukojevićevim vodstvom, hns-cff.hr, 19 August 2019
- ^ S. Mlaćo (14 September 2019). "Mato Neretljak napustio Orašje" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (4 October 2020). "Mato Neretljak na klupi Zvijezde" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (10 October 2020). "Neretljak debitovao pobjedom: Do pauze osvojiti što više bodova, pa podvući crtu" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ S. Mlaćo (18 October 2020). "Domaći bolji nakon preokreta: Ljuca junak Radnika protiv Zvijezde!" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
- ^ "Mato Neretljak dobio je otkaz u Rudešu nakon pet kola, iako ima isti broj bodova kao i vodeći sastav". Telesport.hr (in Croatian). 12 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
External links
edit
- Mato Neretljak at the Croatian Football Federation
- Mato Neretljak at National-Football-Teams.com
- Mato Neretljak at guardian.co.uk
- Mato Neretljak at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)
- Mato Neretljak – K League stats at kleague.com (in Korean)
