Pero Janjić
Personal information
Born	(1944-09-27) 27 September 1944 Banja Luka
Nationality	Bosnian / Croatian
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)
Youth career
Years	Team
1957–1962	Borac Banja Luka
Senior clubs
Years	Team
1962–1970	Borac Banja Luka
Teams managed
1970–1972	Borac Banja Luka U-21
1972–1976	Borac Banja Luka
1976	Yugoslavia
1976–1980	Switzerland
1980–1981	Borac Banja Luka
1982–1983	Füchse Berlin
1985–1987	Al Ain
1988–1990	Borac Banja Luka
1988–1990	Yugoslavia
1990–1992	Medveščak Zagreb
1994–1996	TSG A-H Bielefeld
2000–2001	Medveščak Zagreb

Pero Janjić (born 27 September 1944) is a Bosnian Croat retired handball player and coach.

As a coach, Janjić won the 1976 European Cup with Borac Banja Luka which is still to this day one of the greatest sporting triumphs of clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[1] Janjić also led Borac Banja Luka to four Yugoslav championships in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1981. He was hailed as a national hero in Switzerland for securing a historic first qualification of the national team to the 1980 Olympics.

Coaching career

Pero Janjić first started coaching at the youth team of Borac Banja Luka, his hometown club where he spent his entire career as a player. At the same time he was teaching physical education at Banja Luka gymnasium. Janjić got his break to manage Borac first team at a young age of 28. This proved to be the most successful era in the club's history. Janjić spent four years at the helm and won a European Cup, three Yugoslav Championships and two Yugoslav Cups.^[2]

In 1976, Janjić managed Yugoslavia national team at 1976 Olympics in Montreal where they finished fifth. Yugoslavia missed the Olympic final by just one goal in the final group match.^[3]

Janjić then took over Switzerland national team which was at the time struggling at the third tier World Championship C Group. Under Janjić's leadership, Switzerland's first success was promotion to the second tier B Group. Switzerland then reached the finals of the B Group tournament in 1979, thus securing promotion both to A group and to 1980 Olympics.^[4] Due to personal reasons, Janjić had to return home to Yugoslavia and thus didn't get a chance to lead Switzerland at the Olympic tournament.

In 1980, he once again took over his hometown club Borac which were bottom of the table. Janjić made a complete turnaround and led them to another Yugoslav championship title in 1981.

Later in his career, Janjić managed clubs in West Germany, UAE and Croatia.^[5][6]

In 1990 he had another stint as a head coach of Yugoslavia, finishing fourth at the 1990 World Championship. This was Yugoslavia's last major tournament prior to break up of the country.

Velimir Petković considers Janjić as his role model and one of the best handball coaches in the world.^[7][8]

Personal life

Pero Janjić holds a degree in physical education from the University of Sarajevo.^[4]

In 1990, he moved from Banja Luka to Zagreb where he lives today.

He has a wife Emina and daughters Ivona and Leana.

Honours

References