# Aleksandar Janković

Aleksandar Janković (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Јанковић; born 6 May 1972) is a Serbian football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of the China national football team.

## Playing career

He played football professionally for his hometown club Red Star Belgrade and FK Napredak Kruševac in Serbia, Bonnyrigg White Eagles Football Club (under the name of Sasha Jankovic) in Australia, AS Cherbourg Football and Pau FC in France, before ending his playing career aged 28, due to a knee injury.

## Coaching career

While playing at Pau FC, Janković met his compatriot, coach Slavoljub Muslin who would turn out to be an important figure for his eventual venture into coaching. Following the injury that forced him to end his playing career, Janković came into the Red Star organization (club coached by Muslin at the time) in an adviser-scout role during the early 2000. At the end of the 2000–01 season that saw Red Star win another league title (after winning the league and cup double the previous season), Ratko Dostanić, Muslin's assistant, took the head coaching job at FK Obilić, and Muslin offered the vacated place to Janković who thus became Red Star's assistant coach on 5 July 2001 at the age of 29.
However, Janković wouldn't get to stay at his new job for long as very early into the 2001–02 season Muslin abruptly resigned as head coach after the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League qualifying first leg loss to Bayer Leverkusen and Janković left as well.
In March 2002, Muslin resurfaced as head coach at Levski Sofia and Janković followed him there to be his assistant. In April 2003, Muslin got the sack and Janković left again as well.
Couple of months later, during the summer 2003 offseason, the duo returned to their old stomping grounds at Red Star. After Zoran Filipović got sacked, Muslin got the head coaching job, and, Janković, by now his established second-in-command, was on his way to Belgrade as well.
From there Janković followed Muslin to Metalurh Donetsk, Lokeren, Lokomotiv Moscow, and back to Lokeren, respectively.
From July 2007, he has been an advance scout in Red Star, and his duties mainly included scouting opponents' players and tactics.

### Red Star Belgrade

After Milorad Kosanović's resignation on 9 November 2007, Janković was appointed as new head coach of Red Star. Yet, after failing to earn a title in the national championship or in the national cup, he was dismissed on 11 June 2008, to be replaced by Zdeněk Zeman.
Janković has since been appointed head of the Red Star Belgrade Football School.

### Lokeren

On 6 April 2009 he was named the new SC Lokeren coach, the Serbian signed him until June 2010 and replaced Georges Leekens. On 25 October 2009 Janković was fired after a series of bad results.

### China

He was appointed coach of the China Olympic team on 2021, but China did not take any major competition save for the friendly Dubai Cup, where China won one and lost two other matches. He was named the U-23 team coach for the 2022 Asian Games.
He was named interim coach of the China senior team for the 2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship held in Japan. During the tournament, with most of the squad made up of just under-23 players, China only registered a win and a goal, both against Hong Kong in a 1–0 win by Tan Long's. However, his China did gain an encouraging goalless draw against Japan away, which was the first time in 12 years that China did not lose to Japan in Japanese soil.
On 24 February 2023, he was appointed new head coach of China. At the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, he led China to its worst ever performance in their history, failing to score a single goal and won only two points at the group stages. Following Syria's 1–0 win over India, China were eliminated from the competition. Janković received significant criticism for his strategy, his choice in the selection, and his questionable options, which contributed to China's inability to score a single goal in the tournament and resulted in their eventual elimination. The same day, it was reported that he was fired from the position as coach of China, and had returned to his homeland for vacation, although the final decision remained to be seen. It was later confirmed that Janković's contract would not be extended following the failure in Qatar on 31 January 2024, and he was dismissed from the position.

### Manager

    As of match played 22 January 2024
Managerial record by team and tenure :
| Team | From | To | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Team | From | To | P | W | D | L | Win % |
| Red Star Belgrade | November 2007 | June 2008 | 24 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 066.67 |
| SC Lokeren | April 2009 | October 2009 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 029.41 |
| Serbia U21 | November 2010 | December 2012 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 046.67 |
| Red Star Belgrade | August 2012 | March 2013 | 23 | 14 | 2 | 7 | 060.87 |
| Mechelen | May 2014 | September 2016 | 88 | 35 | 23 | 30 | 039.77 |
| Standard Liège | September 2016 | April 2017 | 35 | 9 | 16 | 10 | 025.71 |
| Mechelen | November 2017 | January 2018 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 030.00 |
| China U20 | January 2019 | December 2020 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 040.00 |
| China U23 | January 2022 | February 2023 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 050.00 |
| China | February 2023 | January 2024 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 029.41 |
| Total | Total | Total | 236 | 97 | 61 | 78 | 041.10 |

## Personal life

Aleksandar is married and has two children. His father is a notable Serbian sports journalist Dobrivoje "Bobi" Janković (1937–2022). He has been dubbed as "Serbian Mourinho" due to Dejan Andjus criticism about him.