Dubai: Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic was sacked and replaced by Romanian former Chelsea defender Dan Petrescu on Saturday night.
A statement on the club’s official twitter page said: “Ivan Jovanovic has been relieved from his duty as coach of Al Nasr.
“The decision came after several meetings with the coach to correct repeated technical errors but each time he failed to modify.
“Dan Petrescu has signed a tentative agreement with the club and arrives in the country tomorrow [Sunday] with his assistants to lead the first team.”
Al Nasr had lost the last four consecutive league games under Jovanovic including Friday’s 5-1 defeat away to Al Wahda.
Since joining the club in 2013 the Serbian ended the outfit’s 25-year wait for silverware by winning the GCC Champions League in 2014 and the League Cup and President’s Cup double in 2015.
He also got the Blue Wave to the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League for the first time in their history this season.
They were eliminated from the Champions League after having a 3-0 win over Qatar’s El Jaish reversed to a defeat after Brazilian-born striker Wanderley Santos was found to be playing on an alleged fake Indonesian passport.
Santos was suspended and Jovanovic struggled to make up for the Brazilian’s absence in the league first beating Al Dhafra but then losing to Al Ahli, Al Wasl, Al Ain and Al Wahda.
Petrescu is famous for his playing career with Chelsea and the Romanian national team but has also forged an impressive managerial career since retiring in 2003.
He’s won four titles across three countries, Romania, Russia and China; the Romanian league with Unirea Urziceni in 2009, the Russian first division with Kuban Krasnodar in 2010, the Romanian Super Cup with Targu Mares in 2015 and the Chinese FA Cup with Jiangsu Suning last year.
Petrescu was sacked by Kuban earlier this month while Jovanovic had recently been linked to the UAE national team job.
