Milutin Sredojević, widely known as Micho, is a Serbian football coach and former player whose career has centered on African club and international football. He guided Uganda to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, ending the country’s 39-year absence from the tournament, and has also coached national teams and leading clubs in several African countries.
Background
Milutin Sredojević was born on September 1, 1969, in Prokuplje, Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia. Prokuplje is a historic town in southern Serbia and the administrative center of the Toplica District.
He played football in Yugoslavia before moving into coaching. Biographical accounts describe him as having studied history and geography. A recurring knee injury curtailed his playing career and contributed to his transition into coaching, a profession in which he subsequently worked extensively across Africa.
Education
Sredojević studied history and geography before establishing himself in football. His education in those subjects preceded a professional career that combined playing, coaching, national-team management, and work across several African football systems.
His managerial development began in the Serbian football environment during the 1990s and expanded into international coaching in the early twenty-first century. His later work with clubs and national teams in Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Egypt, Zambia, Libya, and Algeria placed him in a wide range of football institutions and competitions.
Career
Sredojević began his senior playing career in Yugoslavia with Svoboda Ljubljana, Sinđelić Belgrade, Grafičar Belgrade, Zorka Subotica, and Pionir Subotica. He moved into management in 1994 with Palić and later coached Spartak Subotica and the Yugoslav under-20 national team.
His African coaching career began with SC Villa in Kampala. He helped the Ugandan club win three league titles, the 2002 Uganda Cup, and the 2003 CECAFA Clubs Cup. SC Villa was one of Uganda’s leading clubs, and the CECAFA competition connected East African clubs through a regional championship structure.
In 2004 he joined Saint-George of Addis Ababa, one of Ethiopia’s historic football clubs. During two spells with the club, he guided Saint-George to multiple Ethiopian Premier League titles and domestic success, establishing a substantial record in Ethiopian football. He also coached Orlando Pirates of South Africa, taking the club to the semifinal stage of the African Champions League in 2006, and later worked with Tanzania’s Young Africans.
Sredojević managed Sudan’s Al-Hilal Omdurman from 2010 to 2011 before becoming head coach of Rwanda in November 2011. He took charge of Uganda in May 2013. During his first Uganda tenure, the Cranes won the 2015 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup and qualified for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, Uganda’s first appearance at the tournament since 1978. Uganda then competed in the 2017 finals in Gabon, where it drew with Mali and played Ghana and Egypt.
Orlando Pirates appointed him head coach again in August 2017. The Johannesburg club described his earlier work there as having included a CAF Champions League semifinal appearance. He later managed Zamalek in Egypt, winning the 2018–2019 Egypt Cup, and became head coach of the Zambia national team in 2020.
Sredojević returned to Uganda for a second national-team tenure beginning in 2021. He subsequently managed Libya from October 2023 to September 2024, Sudanese club Al-Merrikh in 2025, and Algeria’s ES Sétif from November 2025 until February 2026. His career has therefore extended across club football and national-team management in East, North, Central, and Southern Africa.
Views
Sredojević has spoken about football in terms of collective effort, discipline, preparation, and the development of a shared national purpose. In his work with Uganda, he emphasized teamwork and treated qualification for major tournaments as a project involving players, staff, supporters, and the wider football organization.
He has identified influential coaches, including Miljan Miljanić, Tomislav Ivić, and Johan Cruyff, as important reference points in his understanding of modern coaching. His public football philosophy combines organizational discipline with attention to player commitment and the long-term construction of national teams.
