 Previously competing for Yugoslavia, he won team medals at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics (bronze) and his inaugural gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 33.In 2010-2014 and 2015-2016, he was a head coach of Sir Safety Perugia, reaching the Superlega finals twice, Italy's top tier league.Kovač in 2016 officially became a new head coach of Halkbank Ankara.