Born in Split, Croatia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Vučević started his career at local HNK Hajduk, where he became a key player at only 18, eventually winning the 1992 Sportske novosti Yellow Shirt award, issued to the best footballer playing in the Croatian League at the end of every season.
During his five-year stay, he could never break into the first team, which also featured – as the clubs in Spain were not allowed to field more than three foreign players at the same time – Luís Figo, Gheorghe Hagi, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário or Hristo Stoichkov;[1] in December 1993, he was ousted from the squad by the Dutch manager after refusing to return to the B-side,[2] and in the following off-season was loaned to Hajduk, where alongside experienced players such as Stjepan Andrijašević, Aljoša Asanović and Igor Štimac he helped to a double conquest – the first since 1975 – and a quarter-final run in the UEFA Champions League.
His second spell as manager started on 16 November 2010, when he replaced Stanko Poklepović;[5] in April 2011, having already been ousted from the group stage of the UEFA Europa League and having failed to win the national championship during the club's 100-year celebration season, he was sacked.
In April 2015, he again replaced Poklepović for a third spell as head coach, but was himself relieved of his duties after only two games, one of them resulting in elimination from the Croatian Football Cup at the hands of RNK Split.
He received threats to both him and his family from the fans, but continued to work as sporting director afterwards; in March 2016, he was criticised for his methods and blamed for the team's negative run in the league, offering his resignation which was taken into consideration.