Elvir Bolić (; born 10 October 1971) is a Bosnian former

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 ...

who played as a striker. He spent most of his 18-year professional career in Turkey, appearing for seven clubs including

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

and Fenerbahçe. He also played three years in Spain, with

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

. Bolić represented

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

during one full decade.

Club career

Čelik / Red Star

Born in

Zenica Zenica ( ; ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. Th ...

SR Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

, Bolić started playing with local NK Čelik, being one of the players in the club that would later represent the independent Bosnian national team, including Senad Brkić,

Mirsad Hibić Mirsad Hibić (born 11 October 1973) is a Bosnian retired professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Club career At club level, he played for NK Čelik Zenica, Hajduk Split, Sevilla FC, and Atlético Madrid, before retiring in January ...

and

Nermin Šabić Nermin Šabić (born 21 December 1973) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. Club career Born in Zenica Zenica ( ; ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation ...

. In December 1991, Bolić was acquired by Yugoslav powerhouse

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

– defending champions of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

– after impressing managers

Vladimir Cvetković Vladimir Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Владимир Цветковић; born 24 May 1941) is a Serbian former basketball player and sports administrator who is the honorary president of Crvena zvezda. He played with KK Crvena zvezda for 13 seasons. Wi ...

and

Dragan Džajić Dragan Džajić ( sr-Cyrl, Драган Џајић; born 30 May 1946) is a Yugoslav former footballer from Serbia. Džajić is widely considered to be one of the best footballers to emerge from the former Yugoslavia, and one of the greatest l ...

. He scored two goals in 11 games in the

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

in his only season. While at the Yugoslav national side's training camp in France, in June of the following year, 21-year-old Bolić received bad news from his family about the deteriorating situation in Bosnia and the start of the military conflict. He informed the club's directors that he would not be coming back to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, and he left to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

to meet with his agent; Red Star respected his wish, and he subsequently signed with

Galatasaray SK Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

Turkey

Bolić moved to Turkey in the summer of 1992, and remained in the nation and its

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

for the following eight years. He started with Galatasaray, going on to represent

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matche ...

and Fenerbahçe SK, winning the national championship in his first season with the latter team and also reaching the final of the

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

. On 30 October 1996, Bolić broke

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

's 40-year unbeaten home record playing for Fenerbahçe in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

when he scored the game's only goal at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

in the season's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

group stage, where he also netted against

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

(1–1 away draw).

Late career

Bolić started the 2000s in Spain with

, spending three seasons in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

with the club and at times forming part of a forward line with another Bosnian and a Basque who all had similar names: ' Baljić, Bolić and Bolo'. In his first year he scored eight in 32 matches, adding seven in the campaign's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

to help the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

outskirts side reach the quarterfinals, even though four of those came in a 10–0 away routing of amateurs

Constel·lació Esportiva Constel·lació Esportiva was an Andorran football club from Andorra La Vella. The team began play in the Andorran First Division ( Campionat de Lliga) in 1998 and dominated the league in 2000, beating FC Encamp 6–0 in the championship. That sum ...

. In 2003, Bolić returned to Turkey for another lengthy spell, joining Istanbulspor in late July. At the end of the season he left for Gençlerbirliği SK, finishing his second stint in the country with

Malatyaspor Malatya Spor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club based in Malatya, mainly concentrated on football. Previously their colors were yellow and black (prior to 1984). They played in First League for 11 seasons. They are the first team located in Eas ...

and İstanbulspor. Bolić started 2006–07 in Croatia with NK Rijeka, but left in September 2006, retiring shortly after at the age of 35.

International career

Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team in 2002

Bolić earned 51

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

, scoring 22 goals. He made his debut in 1996 against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and, at the time of his retirement, ranked third in international goals for his country, only trailing

Edin Džeko Edin Džeko (; born 17 March 1986) is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan and captains the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. Džeko was named Bosnian Footballer of the Year for three years in a ...

and

Zvjezdan Misimović Zvjezdan Misimović (, ; born 5 June 1982) is a Bosnian former professional footballer who most notably played for Bayern Munich, VfL Wolfsburg, Galatasaray, Dynamo Moscow, and Beijing Renhe as an attacking midfielder. Misimović is the fourth m ...

. On 8 September 2004, Bolić netted the equalizer in a 1–1 home draw with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifiers. His final international was a September 2006 European Championship qualification match against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. He later briefly worked as assistant coach to the national team, being part of

Meho Kodro Mehmed "Meho" Kodro (born 12 January 1967) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player who played as a forward. He spent most of his 16-year senior career in Spain, mostly with Real Sociedad (four seasons) and Tenerife (three ...

's coaching staff and leaving his post on 17 May 2008.

International goals

Honours

Club

;Galatasaray *

: 1992–93 *

: 1992–93 ;Fenerbahçe *

: 1995–96

References

External links