Leko started his career with his hometown club Hajduk Split and played there for several seasons before moving to Spain to join Málaga CF. In his early senior years, he was loaned to HNK Trogir.[1]
In January 2005, Leko returned for a brief stint with Hajduk; in the summer he joined Club Brugge.
On 15 January 2009, he decided to sign a contract for K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot. After his spell at the Antwerp side, he went on with his career at K.S.C. Lokeren.
Leko made his debut for Croatia in a June 1999 Korea Cup match against Egypt, coming on as a 65th-minute substitute for Mario Cvitanović, and earned a total of 13 caps, scoring no goals.[2] He was called up to the squad to participate in the 2006 World Cup, but played no part in the tournament, as Croatia exited in the group stage. His final international was a June 2006 friendly against Spain.[3]
Leko made his debut as a manager in 2014, with Oud-Heverlee Leuven, but he managed club for a season.
In 2015 he became an assistant manager of Greek side PAOK FC under the coaching staff of Croatian manager Igor Tudor, who was sacked in 2016. A one-season, 2016–17, he managed Sint-Truidense V.V. and the next two seasons, 2017–18 and 2018–19, Leko was the manager of Club Brugge. He celebrated Jupiler Pro League and Belgian Super Cup in his first season in Brugge. Also, Leko won the title of Professional Manager of the Year. In October 2018 Belgian police interrogated him for corruption investigation.[4]
In May 2019, Club Brugge KV and Leko parted ways. The 41-year-old coach had been with the club since 2017.[5] On 1 June 2019, he was appointed at his new club, Al Ain. In December 2019, Leko left club Al Ain FC after a disastrous home defeat against Al Dhafra FC. Both sides had agreed to end their cooperation after five months of poor play.[6]
On 20 May 2020, Leko was appointed the manager of Royal Antwerp.[7] Taking over the team from Laszlo Bölöni, he led the team to win their first Belgian Cup since 1992, with a 1–0 win against his former side Club Brugge in the final. This earned Antwerp a qualification in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage for the first time in the club's history, where they were drawn in Group J against Tottenham Hotspur, LASK Linz and Ludogorets Razgrad. Leko led the team to a surprising 2nd place finish in the group, with 4 wins and 2 losses, culminating in a 1–0 home victory against Tottenham on 29 October; as a result, the team qualified for the round of 32, where they were drawn against Rangers. In December 2020, Leko left Royal Antwerp and moved to Shanghai Port,[8][9][10] where he took up his new post with the Chinese team, under a 2-year total net 5 million euros contract.[11][12] In February 2021, Leko was introduced as the new head coach of Shanghai Port at the SAIC Motor Pudong Arena.[13]
On 31 December 2022, he returned to Croatia to coach his former club Hajduk Split; however, he was dismissed on 23 October 2023.[14] On 4 January 2024, he became head coach of Belgian side Standard Liège.[15]
In October 2018, Club Brugge KV coach Leko was interrogated by Belgian police as part of a corruption investigation.[16][17][18]
In the subsequent court case, the judge demanded to know why Leko had received a payment from Dejan Veljkovic's Cypriot account in 2015.[19] In June 2019, former Club Brugge KV coach Leko was interrogated all day as part of the investigation into fraud in Belgian football, but was later released.[20][21]
