Mihailo Petrović

Mihailo Petrović, known in Japan simply as Mischa, is one of the most unusual foreign figures in Japanese football. Born in Belgrade in 1957 and a former player himself, he arrived as a coach and then did something most imported managers never do: he stayed. Across long spells at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Urawa Reds and Consadole Sapporo, he has spent well over a decade shaping teams in this country, and he now manages in the J.League still. What I respect is the stubbornness of his football. He commits to an attacking, possession-heavy structure that pushes defenders forward, and he keeps committing to it through the seasons when it does not work and the criticism arrives. That approach is genuinely double-edged, and honest supporters will admit as much. But he never traded it for safety. Between the conviction and the famously idiosyncratic Japanese he speaks to his players, he has become less a foreign coach than a fixture of the domestic game.

Name (English)

Mihailo Petrović

Name (Japanese)

ミハイロ・ペトロヴィッチ

Reading

みはいろ・ぺとろゔぃっち

Born

October 18, 1957 (age 68)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Rooster

Origin

Belgrade, Kingdom of Hungary

Height

172 cm

Occupation

association football player / association football coach

• Official sitehttps://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/players/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%81/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihailo%20Petrovi%C4%87%20(footballer)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%81
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q613659

Tags

• association football player
• association football coach

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.