Igor Pamić (born 19 November 1969) is a Croatian 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 lea ...

and current

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He made five appearances for the Croatia national team during his playing career.

Playing career

Club

He was born in the village of Žminj in

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

and started his professional career at the club Istra Pula in early 1992. He left the club after two seasons for

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

, where he spent another two seasons before moving to

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

in July 1995. After one season with Osijek, he moved abroad by signing with French club

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy ...

in July 1996. He scored a total of 57 goals in five seasons of playing in the Croatian First League. At club level, he left Sochaux in June 1997 after one season of playing for the club and went on to sign with German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side Hansa Rostock. In a season and half of playing for Hansa, Pamić appeared in a total of 37 Bundesliga matches and managed to score 13 goals for the club in the league. With the beginning of the year 1999, he transferred to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

side

Grazer AK Grazer Athletiksport Klub (; abbreviated as GAK), better known simply as Grazer AK, is an Austrian sports club based in the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria. The football section was once among Austria's most popular clubs, enjoying s ...

and continued to play for the club before he finished his career as a player in the autumn of 2001, playing his last league match on 21 October 2001 against Rapid Wien. In two half-seasons and two entire seasons of playing for GAK, he appeared in a total of 66 Bundesliga matches and scored 23 goals.

International

He made his debut for the Croatia national team in a friendly match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...

on 10 April 1996 in

and also managed to score his first and only international goal in this match. He was subsequently also part of the Croatian squad at the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

finals in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, but made only one appearance at the tournament by playing the first half of the final group match against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. He subsequently appeared in only two more matches for the Croatia national team, playing as a substitute in a 1996 friendly against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

as well as in the Croatian team's first

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

qualifier against the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

on 5 September 1998. In all, he won a total of five international caps and scored one goal for Croatia.

Managerial career

Shortly after retiring from football as a player, Pamić started his managerial career in the sport. He was the head coach of Croatian Third League side NK Žminj in 2002 and 2003, going on to move to Croatian Second League side NK Pula in early 2004, helping them to clinch promotion to the Croatian First League for the 2004–05 season. Pamić left Pula in the winter break of the 2005–06 season and returned to Žminj in 2006, spending a season with the club. In 2007, he was appointed head coach at

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...

, with whom he clinched promotion to the Croatian First League in 2009. He returned to Karlovac 1919 in October 2021, after spells at the helm of Slovenian club

Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...

, Montenegrin outfit

OFK Titograd OFK Titograd ( Montenegrin Cyrillic: ОФК Титоград) is a professional football club based in Podgorica, Montenegro. Founded in 1951, they play in the Third League of Montenegro. The team has one league trophy and two Montenegrin Cup tr ...

and Bosnian side GOŠK Gabela.

Personal life

His sons Zvonko and Alen are also a professional football players. His son Alen died in June 2013.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Croatia Zagreb * Croatian Cup:

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Grazer AK * Austrian Cup:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

* Austrian Super Cup:

Manager

Žminj * Treća HNL - West: 2002–03 Karlovac * Treća HNL - West: 2007–08 *

Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga (), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Yugoslav Second League. The 1. NL is ope ...

: 2008–09

References

External links