55 CFL Live, Former Shanghai Shenhua manager Ilija Petkovic has passed away at the age of 75 after a long illness, according to the official news from the Serbian Football Federation. Petkovic was the president of the Belgrade Football Federation and was a vital member of the Yugoslav national team for which he made 43 appearances between 1968 and 1974 during his playing career.
He also captained the OFK Belgrade team and was the best performer in the team's history. In the 1971-72 season Kori played for the Uruguayan team Penarol, before playing for the French club Troyes for three seasons. Petković was the head coach of the national teams of Serbia and Montenegro from 2000 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2006, in addition to winning championships in Switzerland while coaching Servette.
Petkovic has also coached Greek club Ares, Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua and Sichuan Guancheng. Recently, Shanghai Shenhua sports director Wu Jingui said in an interview with Shangguan News that Petkovic left a valuable treasure for Shenhua. 2001 season, Petkovic began to coach Shanghai Shenhua, Wu Jingui as an assistant coach, in addition to being responsible for communicating with the foreign coaching team. Wu Jingui said, "Hearing the news of Petkovic's death is really shocking and heartbreaking. He was a very good coach, the last time we met was in 2011. Ilya's tactical play belongs to the technical flow, pay more attention to the two to one, two to two's, three to three partial cooperation, the side of the combination of the middle, transfer tactics also have their own characteristics, such a way of playing suitable for the Shanghai players with good minds and good technology, has been recognized by everyone."
In addition, Wu Jingui also said, "Ilya coach Shenhua, pay close attention to the training and selection of young players, after each training session, he has to give young players extra practice, when Shenhua has a team from Brazil to study back, including Wang Ke, Zhu Jianmin, etc.. His long-term approach, including one-on-one training, has benefited me a lot.
