Swiss Review 3/2018

20 Swiss Review / May 2018 / No.3 Sport BENJAMIN STEFFEN Perhaps this is explained by a hazy set of circumstances when Vladimir Pet- kovic, born in 1963, was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in Sarajevo. When Vladimir was born, his father ended his footballing career and be- gan working at the deeper level of coaching. But duringmatches his son was always by his father’s side in the dressing room and on the side of the pitch. Vladimir Petkovic once said ten years ago that he had “probably” learned a great deal during that time “that he was not even aware of today”. An air of mystery surrounds Pet- kovic’s rise to the leading coaching position in Swiss football, becoming manager of the national team which will take part in the World Cup in Russia in June. Petkovic did not enjoy a glorious playing career. When he joined Chur in the second tier of Swiss football in the 1980s, everything began with a misunder- standing. When they signed him, Chur thought Petkovic was a striker who would provide a regular supply of goals. But Petkovic was a mid- fielder. His was a journeyman career playing for various Swiss clubs. He had a spell with FC Sion, but not in a key role, before playing for Martigny, returning to Chur and then turning out for Bellinzona and Locarno – nothing remarkable by any means. He was only really noticed by people who made the effort to get to know him. Petkovic was reserved, but if someone asked him for advice he gave it. This is the view of a former team- mate at FC Chur who went hiking in the mountains of Grisons with Petk- continually heard howhe had come to Berne from far away – as though Ticinowas on another continent. And when the officials fromthe Swiss Foot- ball Association appointed him na- tional coach in summer 2014, they had initially identified someone else as their preferred candidate and openly revealed their wish list. It included Marcel Koller, the coach of Austria at the time, a position he still holds. It was hard to tell if this upset Petkovic, whether he felt slighted to be under- estimated and regarded as second choice or rather saw it as an opportu- nity.When somebody once asked him what convinced him that he could be- come a good coach, Petkovic replied: “Nothing really!” It was a moment of equanimity and humour which Petk- ovic only provides when he feels com- fortable and sure of being understood. The deep belief that hewould become a top coach had long been heldmainly by himself, close friends and people from Ticino, this far-flung region on another continent. Strategic self-belief It is not blind confidence or arrogance but strategic self-belief that has taken Petkovic so far in his career. He has learned to believe in himself because he spent so long living out of the spot- light, because hewas not an acclaimed international player with lots of caps who people naturally assumedwould make a good coach. Yes, he has come a long way, if we are talking about where Petkovic started out rather than Ticino. He had to spend a long time showingwhat he could do in con- Getting to the top in a roundabout way Vladimir Petkovic is leading the Swiss national football team to the World Cup – something hardly anyone would have imagined just a few years ago. But pulling off surprises is part and parcel of Petkovic’s career. ovic and other foreign players at the club. Community worker with Caritas Petkovic did not push himself for- ward and therefore long went unno- ticed. This is how people saw and de- scribed him for a long time. He had a respectable coaching career at the lower levels. Wherever he went, he achieved some degree of success, and if he remained with a team for a longer period he generally improved it. Petkovic settled down with his wife and two daughters in Ticino where he coached almost every am- bitious club from 1998 onwards, in- cluding Agno, Lugano and Bellinzona. He led AC Bellinzona to Switzerland’s top flight and the cup final in 2008 and suddenly started to attract atten- tion and media interest. Yet still this was not simply due to his coaching ca- reer, but just as much to his main job. Petkovic was employed as a commu- nity worker by Caritas and managed projects for the unemployed until summer 2008. Nobody suspected that he would be leading the Swiss teamto theWorld Cup ten years later. Throughout his ca- reer people have underestimated him. Outside of Ticino few people had no- ticed that Petkovic had embarked upon a remarkable career, usually with the firm intention of encourag- ing his teams to play attractive foot- ball. When he signed a contract with Young Boys inAugust 2008, therewas once againmuch talk about his career in community work and how he was the exception to the rule. Petkovic also