Mato Neretljak

Mato Neretljak (born 3 June 1979) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of First League of FBiH club Zvijezda Gradačac. He is also working as assistant manager of the Croatia U20 national team.

Mato Neretljak
Neretljak with Omiya Ardija in 2010
Personal information
Date of birth (1979-06-03) 3 June 1979
Place of birth Orašje, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Zvijezda Gradačac (manager)
Croatia U20 (assistant manager)
Youth career
0000–1999 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)
National team
2000–2001 Croatia U21 8 (0)
2001–2006 Croatia 10 (1)
Teams managed
2015–2016 Orašje
2016–2017 Metalleghe-BSI
2017–2018 Orašje
2018–2019 GOŠK Gabela
2019 Orašje
2019– Croatia U20 (assistant)
2020– Zvijezda Gradačac
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

He 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 HNK 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-long contract deal. 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

Neretljak won 8 international caps for the Croatian national under-21 football team in 2000 and 2001. While still playing for the under-21 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.

Managerial career

Neretljak 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.[1] He left Metalleghe on 1 June 2017, after failing not to get relegated in the 2016–17 Premier League season.[2]

19 days after leaving Metalleghe, Neretljak came back to and became the new manager of Orašje once again.[3] 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.[4]

On 28 September 2018, after Feđa Dudić got sacked, Neretljak was named the new manager of Bosnian Premier League club GOŠK Gabela.[5] 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.[6] On 12 March 2019, Neretljak left GOŠK after making a series of bad results with the club.[7]

In July 2019, it was announced that Neretljak became the new manager of Orašje for the third time in his career.[8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11]

On 4 October 2020, Neretljak was named new manager of Zvijezda Gradačac.[12] In his first game as Zvijezda manager, Neretljak led his team to a league win over Čapljina.[13] His first loss as Zvijezda manager was against Radnik Hadžići also in a league match on 18 October 2020.[14]

Career statistics

International goals
Results list Croatia's goal tally first.
DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
18 February 2004Split, Croatia Germany1 goal1–2Friendly match

Honours

Player

Orašje

Hajduk Split

Suwon Bluewings

Individual

References
  1. A. Pašić (14 November 2016). "Bivši hrvatski reprezentativac preuzeo Metalleghe BSI" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  2. S. Mlaćo (1 June 2017). "Mato Neretljak više nije trener Metalleghea" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  3. S. Mlaćo (1 June 2017). "Mato Neretljak više nije trener Metalleghea" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  4. S. Mlaćo (2 June 2018). "Neretljak 'digao sidro': To je to, dosta od mene..." (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  5. S. Mlaćo (28 September 2018). "Mato Neretljak novi šef struke NK GOŠK" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  6. M. Šljivak (30 September 2018). "Muk na Grbavici: GOŠK odnio tri boda!" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  7. A. Lendo (12 March 2019). "Neretljak podnio ostavku na mjesto trenera NK GOŠK" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  8. E. Škorić (5 July 2019). "Mato Neretljak pronašao novi angažman u BiH" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  9. MAKARANIN DESNA RUKA IZBORNIKU U-20 REPREZENTACIJE HRVATSKE, makarsko-primorje.com, 18 July 2019
  10. Hrvatska U-20 okuplja se po prvi put pod Vukojevićevim vodstvom, hns-cff.hr, 19 August 2019
  11. S. Mlaćo (14 September 2019). "Mato Neretljak napustio Orašje" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  12. S. Mlaćo (4 October 2020). "Mato Neretljak na klupi Zvijezde" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. 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.
  14. S. Mlaćo (18 October 2020). "Domaći bolji nakon preokreta: Ljuca junak Radnika protiv Zvijezde!" (in Bosnian). sportsport.ba. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
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