About the Author

MSc Sasa Semeredi

Sasa Semeredi is an experienced Strength & Conditioning coach with strong background in professional football, currently holding position Head of Performance of Professional Football Club Debreceni VSC, Hungarian OTP Bank League. As a late stage PhD student at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sport and Physical education, he is writing a PhD thesis: Effects of different formulations of Creatine on sports performance, biochemical markers and energetics of muscles and brain of athletes, under the mentorship of Professor MD Sergej Ostojić.

His major interests are related to: Load & Fatigue monitoring in football, Strength training in team settings, Rehabilitation and Injury prevention and Nutritional support in Professional athletes.

Previous Experience in Professional Football

After six years of experience as a Personal fitness coach working with amateurs and professional athletes and Head Coach of Sportland Football Academy (U7-U14), in 2015. Sasa moved to Belgrade and joined FC Red Star as an Academy Strength & Conditioning coach, working with U19 and U17 teams. It was a great opportunity to work on Youth Development programs in team settings, coaching some of the biggest talents in the country. After two years in FCRS Academy & Professional team, Sasa moved to Belgrade side FC Bežanija, Serbian First Division, in order to gain more Senior level experience and stayed there for almost whole season, when the first international offer came across.

In 2017, Sasa started his international career, signing the contract with Baskonia-Alaves Group, owners of Deportivo Alaves FC (LaLiga) and famous Basketball club Baskonia, based in Vitoria, Spain. As he was named Deportivo Alaves’ Performance specialist on International projects, after time in Spain, in 2018. Sasa moved to France to take his place as a Head of Performance of FC Sochaux-Montbeliard, famous French football name. In season 2018/2019 FCSM was playing in Domino’s League 2, second tier of French football. During this period Sasa started long and successful colaboration with Professor Igor Jukić, Baskonia-Alaves Head of Performance and former Croatian National Team Head Strength & Conditioning coach.

In June 2019, Sasa moved back to Serbia in order to dedicate his time and energy to academic work, but after the right offer he started working as a Head of Performance of FC Vojvodina Novi Sad. In the first season, club won Serbian National Cup Trophy (2019/2020), which was a remarkable success as that was a 4th trophy in 106 years long history of the club. The success is even greater, if it’s taken into account that the final stages of the league and cup competitions took place after a 2 months of COVID-19 total lockdown.

In September 2022, as a Head of Performance Department, Sasa moved to Hungarian Debreceni VSC (OTP Bank League) with Head Coach Srdjan Blagojevic.

Years of work on elite-level of European football allowed the author to use the novel technology in professional environment and thus significantly improve his level of expertise (Catapult and STATSports GPS Systems, Time-Motion Analysis, Body Composition Analysis, Force Plate System, etc.)

PhD Research: GAA Supplementation affects Brain and Muscle Bioenergetics

Academic work & Education

After obtaining two BSc diplomas and MSc in Sport Science with honours (2007-2012), as a PhD Student of University of Novi Sad, Sasa Semeredi published several scientific and conference papers. His PhD research investigates effects of Guanidinoacetic acid mixed with Creatine on Brain and Skeletal muscle Bioenergetics. Original paper was published in Nutrition in 2018.
As an invited lecturer, Sasa has participated in several International Scientific Conferences including: 16^th International Scientific Conference “Physical Conditioning of Athletes”, Zagreb, Croatia, 2018. Paper title: Resistance training for muscle hypertrophy: An update. and 40^th International Scientific Conference ESPEN Madrid 2018. Paper title: Creatine and Guanidinoacetic Acid affects Brain and Skeletal Muscle Bioenergetics.
Sasa is also an invited lecturer of Football Association of Serbia at UEFA Football coaching licensing courses (UEFA A and B), covering topics on Physical Preparation in football. Also, Sasa holds Physical Preparation Specialist license issued by Football Association of Serbia (2017).
During 12 Academic years, Sasa also spent two years as a Teaching Associate on Courses: Functional Anatomy and Exercise Physiology under the mentorship of brilliant Professor MD Sergej Ostojić which had an immeasurable influence on his work and subsequent successes.
As a Research assistant, Sasa is a member of Applied Bioenergetics Lab.
As a translator, he participated in the creation of several titles in the Serbian language in the field of science in sport, among which is popular book Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 4th Edition by G. Haff and T. Triplett. The main objective of this project was to help students from the Serbo-Croatian speaking area in acquiring modern knowledge (Check the book here).

Private practice

Since July 2020, Sasa became a co-owner of Kinezis Trening, private training ground and started his colaboration with experienced Serbian Strength & Conditioning coach Mr Aleksandar Janković. Kinezis training is located in Novi Sad, Serbia and counts more than 100 professional players (mostly from professional football and tennis) visiting each month. Kinezis delivers Physical preparation and Rehabilitation services and because of its evidence- and experience-based approach attracts athletes competing in country and abroad. Kinezis especially attracts athletes who are looking for professional services after severe injuries, as well as a large number of athletes who come during the offseason, returning from competitions all around the Europe and the US.
In the previous decade, a large number of Serbian National Team players in football and other sports, as well as tennis players ranked in Top 100 (ATP & WTA), went through Kinezis Training program.
Recently, the company has significantly expanded its capacity through significant increases in workspace and the employment of more physical preparation specialists. In the coming months and years, significant investments in further development are expected.