Branko Strupar (born 9 February 1970) is a Croatian-Belgian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker. In 1999, he became a naturalised Belgian. He consequently played for the Belgium national team with whom he played 17 matches and scored 5 times.

Early career

Strupar was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and started his footballing career with the local county tier club

NK Špansko NK Špansko is a Croatian football club based in the city of Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croa ...

in the west of the city. He was scouted by a number of Croatian and European clubs in early 1990s and ultimately joined

KRC Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and have won four champ ...

in 1994.

Club career

Strupar played in Belgium for

, winning promotion to the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

in 1996 and becoming champion of Belgium with the same team in 1999. He also won the

Belgian Golden Shoe In association football, the Belgian Golden Shoe ( nl, Gouden Schoen, french: Soulier d'Or) is an award given in Belgium at the beginning of each civil year to the best footballer of the Belgian First Division A for the past year. The trophy is spon ...

as Player of the Year for 1998. In 1998, he finished as top scorer with 22 goals. He moved to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

in December 1999, where he most notably scored the first British league goal of the year 2000 after two minutes against

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

(a game in which he scored twice). While at Derby Strupar gained popularity with his prolific scoring ability. Despite an excellent goals-to-games ratio when fit, injuries curtailed his Derby career, and he was eventually given a free transfer, with which he returned to Croatia for a brief spell at

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

to wind up his career.

International career

He made his debut for

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in an August 1999

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, coming on as a 46th-minute substitute for Sandy Martens, and earned a total of 17 caps, scoring 5 goals. His final international was a June 2002

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

match against

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Personal life

Strupar lives in his native Zagreb with his wife, daughters Dora and Laura and his son Bruno. He worked as a guest football commentator on the Croatian network RTL.

Honours

Genk *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 1997–98 Belgian Cup, 1997–98 *

: 1998–99 Belgian First Division, 1998–99 Dinamo Zagreb *

Croatian Football Super Cup The Croatian Football Super Cup is a Association football, football match between the winners of the Croatian national Croatian Football League, top league and Croatian Football Cup, football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Belgium * FIFA Fair Play Trophy:

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Individual * Belgian First Division A top scorer: 1997–98 (22 goals) *

: 1998

References

BBC website

External links

* 1970 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Croatian emigrants to Belgium Naturalised citizens of Belgium Association football forwards Yugoslav footballers Croatian footballers Belgian footballers Belgium international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players K.R.C. Genk players Derby County F.C. players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Belgian Pro League players Premier League players Croatian Football League players Belgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England {{Belgium-footy-bio-stub