Petar Segrt
Petar Segrt is a Croatian-born German football coach and former football defender.
He most recently worked as the Head coach of the Maldives national football team.
Early life
Segrt's parents immigrated to Germany in the 1970s but took his older brother and left him behind with his grandmother.Career as a player
Petar Segrt started his senior career in 1984 playing for FV Calw. He also played for FV Plochingen, TSV Schweickheim, SV Allmersbach, FC Walldorf and SV Waldhof Mannheim A. After his first injury, while he was recovering from the operation, he started as junior coach of FV Calw, while he was only 17 years old. Because of his second knee injury, he had to finish playing at 1993, while he was 27 years old. The same year Segrt graduated for UEFA 'B' Coaching Licence in Ruit, Germany, and started his coaching career.Coaching qualification and philosophy
Petar Segrt has UEFA Pro Licence. He graduated for UEFA 'B' Coaching Licence in November, 1993 in Ruit, Germany, for UEFA 'A' Coaching Licence in July, 1995 in Hennef, Germany, and for UEFA Pro Licence Petar Segrt graduated in October, 2001 in Koln, Germany.Petar Segrt's coaching philosophy can be described as good organization, aggressively attacking football with a good balance between offensive and defensive. Segrt is known by working with clear concept, intensive communication with players while keeping the authority and leadership, developing players to a successful team with winner spirit. He is especially known by being loyal to the team, the club, federation members and to spectators.
Segrt often attended Coaching Seminars at the German Football Association, the Football Federations of Spain, England, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Croatia, South Africa and Austria. He also attended Coaching hospitalities at Football clubs as Arsenal London, West Ham, Hamburger SV, TSG Hoffenheim, Al Ahly Club, Austria Wien, Sturm Graz and many others.
Petar Segrt have References from coaches as Joachim Löw, Arsène Wenger, Klaus Toppmöller, Ralf Rangnick, Josef Hickersberger, Erich Rutemöller, Ivica Osim and Dejan Savićević.
Coaching career
After 4 years honorary working as youth coach in Amateur club FV Calw, Petar Segrt started his professional coaching career and he worked for various clubs in Germany. In 1.Bundesliga clubs VfL Bochum and MSV Duisburg he worked as U-19 youth coach, as Second team assistant coach and also as part of the First team coaching staff. In 2000, he go back to the club where he once played SV Waldhof Mannheim in 2.Bundesliga to work as assistant coach and as head coach of the Second team. In this 5 years with his A-licence Petar Segrt got many experience to work on the highest level in Germany especially with young talented players. After he graduated his UEFA Pro Licence in 2001 he started to work as head coach in some professional clubs in Austria like DSV Leoben, SV Ried and Wiener Sportklub. In this 14 years of coaching experience Segrt was remembered as the coach who develop many young players into National team players and he earned himself a nickname "Architect".Georgia national team
In 2006, he start working as a part of Georgia A-national team Coaching team together with Klaus Toppmöller. Between 2006–2008 Petar Segrt also accept the role as head coach of Georgia U21 national team where in a very short time he developed more than 18 players who played or still playing for Georgia A-national team. While Petar Segrt as coach, Georgia U21 make one of the biggest success in Georgian National team football history with a 2:0 victory against Russia U21 in 2007 European U21 Cup qualification. After Klaus Toppmöller left the Georgia A-national team on 1 April 2008, Petar Segrt was appointed as first Technical Director in history of Georgian Football Federation. He was also leading Georgia A-national team as Head coach in friendly games against Estonia and Portugal in May 2008, before Georgian Football Federation appointed Héctor Cúper as head coach on August 1, 2008.In addition to his coaching skills, Segrt gained large popularity in Georgia during the Georgia-Russia war conflict in 2008, after his famous speech at Rustaveli square in Tbilisi, where he promised to the thousands of Georgian people gathered, that he would not leave their country despite the war.
After his great work in Georgia, in December 2008 Germany's leading sports magazine Kicker announced that German Football Association choose Petar Segrt as one of the candidates for taking over Germany U21.
In the end of 2010 Konsorsium Liga Premier Indonesia invited Petar Segrt to be a part and help them with his coaching and managing experience to build a new club in Indonesian professional football based in Bali, so Segrt approached to Bali Devata which competed in Liga Primer Indonesia. After he finished his job with Bali Devata the same consortium offered him a new job as head coach of former Indonesian champion PSM Makassar.
PSM Makassar
Since October 2011 Petar Segrt was appointed as head coach of PSM Makassar. Very traditional club which last years had many problems and not even one national team player anymore. After only one season in Indonesian Premier League Segrt developed 10 new Indonesian national players, six players were invited for Indonesia A-national team and four players were invited for Indonesia U-23 national team. After success Segrt achieved that season, in July 2012 PSM Makassar club boards offered him 5 years contract extension, which is very uncommon for Indonesian clubs. Petar Segrt also have unbeaten home record in Indonesian Premier League, which is the first time for PSM Makassar in clubs 97 years history, although he had youngest team in the Indonesian Premier League as average age of the players was 22. In December 2012, Petar Segrt lead the team winning the Walikota Cup in Ternate. That was the first trophy for PSM Makassar after almost 12 years. Although he had contract until 2017, after his team winning game in Jun 2013 Petar Segrt decided to leave PSM Makassar for private reasons. The club's supporters showed their disappointment by decision of their favorite coach, but together with president and club's management they invited Segrt to attend the next home game in July 2013. They filled the stadium and prepared official goodbye in front of the game, which is very unusual for Indonesian supporters.Zvijezda Gradačac
After leaving PSM Makassar, Petar was a strong candidate to coach Indonesia national football team. In September 2014, Petar Segrt accepted the offer from Bosnian Premier League club Zvijezda Gradačac. Although Petar Segrt brought Zvijezda in the middle of the ranking, in April 2015 the club got a new management and they decided to appoint a new coach. That ended up being a poor decision as the club got relegated from the Premier League shortly after Segrt left.Afghanistan national team
In November 2015, Afghanistan Football Federation announced that they appointed Petar Segrt as the new head coach. Segrt promised he will use his experience and knowledge to develop football in Afghanistan.Petar Segrt won six from eight official matches with Afghanistan. He won four South Asia Cup matches and one lost in overtime against home team India in final 1-2. In World Cup qualification for Russia 2018 Segrt lost only in Japan and he won two other matches. He achieved the biggest success of Afghanistan in Asia Cup with the direct and first time in history of Afghanistan the Final Asia Cup Qualification. After that the Afghanistan Football Federation surprisingly decides to appoint new coach.