Josip Colina ( bs, Čolina; born 8 November 1980) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian retired football player. He also holds Swiss citizenship and played most of his football career in Switzerland. He played as

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and/or

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

Club career

Colina started his youth football with

Nordstern Basel FC Nordstern Basel is a football team from Basel, Switzerland. Currently playing in the Swiss 8th division, FC Nordstern Basel has spent 35 seasons in the Swiss top flight, last in 1982. They were runners-up in the Swiss league in 1924, 1927, and ...

but moved at an early age to the youth department of

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

. In summer 1998 he advanced to their reserve team (U-21) and, toward the end of their 1998–99 FC Basel season, he was used by first team head coach

Marco Schällibaum Marco Schällibaum (born 6 April 1962) is a Swiss football manager and former player. He is the manager of Swiss Challenge League side Yverdon-Sport FC. Playing career As a player Schällibaum played 15 years in the Swiss first division fr ...

as substitute. Colina's debut came on 30 May 1999, as he came on in the 73rd minute in the away game as Basel played a 1–1 draw with Xamax. The following season Colina played solely for the FCB reserve team and, therefore, for the 2000-01 season he was loaned out to

FC Wangen bei Olten FC Wangen bei Olten is a Swiss football club based in Wangen bei Olten. The club has played in Nationalliga B (2nd level), and currently plays at 1. Liga (Group 2) (4th level). Recent seasons *2000–01: Nationalliga B 7th in Abstiegsrunde ( ...

who had just achieved promotion to the Nationalliga B after being 1st League Group to winners and winning the championship play-offs at the end of the previous season. Colina became regular starter for Wangen b. Olten. However, the team could not avoid immediate relegation. After his one year loan, Colina returned to his club of origin, but he played again solely for the reserve team. Thus, after three months, the club decided to loan him out again, this time to local team

Concordia Basel FC Concordia Basel is a Swiss association football, football club based in Basel. The club was founded in 1907. They play in the 2nd regional league which is the fifth level, and their home stadium was Rankhof Stadium until the 2008-09 season. F ...

. They had achieved promotion to the Nationalliga B in the Previous season, as the 1st league champions, and they were looking for players to strengthen their squad. Up until the winter break Colina had four league appearances for Concordia, scoring one goal. On 6 December 2001 it was announced that Colina had signed a three-and-half year contract with

Varese Calcio Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Varese Calcio, commonly referred to as Varese, was an Italian football club based in Varese, Lombardy. It was founded as Varese Football Club on 22 March 1910. It became Associazione Sportiva Varesina in 1923, ...

, who at that time played in the Serie C1, the third highest tier in the

Italian football league system The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Italy. It consists of nine national and regional tournaments, the first three be ...

. However, during his first six months with the team, he only had one appearance for them and this was in the final game of the season against Carrarese Calcio, in a two all draw on 5 May 2002. As conditions did not improve for the player at the beginning of the 2002–03 season, he was released from his contract, and he returned to Basel and again signed for Concordia. Playing as central defender Colina, became regular starter for the team and regularly scored decisive goals for them, which attracted the interest of the top-level clubs. On 2 July 2007, Colina signed a contract with Swiss Super League club Grasshopper Club. In his first season with GC, he had not only 19 appearances with their first team, but he also aided in their reserve team. Then, as of the 2008–09 league season, Colina was regular starter for their first team. On 6 March 2010 he scored his first Super League goal and, somewhat ironically, it was against his club of origin in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

. It was the first goal of the game, just 135 seconds after the kick-off, as GC won 2–1 against

. It was announced on 23 August 2011, that Colina had signed a one-year loan contract with lower tier club

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

and at the end of the 2011–12 Challenge League season, Colina retired from his active football career.

Private life

Since May 2014 Colina works as Senior financial controller for IWB (Industrielle Werke Basel). Since January 2014 he works as a scout for

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

Football.ch profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colina, Josip 1980 births Living people Footballers from Zenica Croat sportspeople from Bosnia and Herzegovina Swiss people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Swiss people of Croatian descent Men's association football central defenders Bosnia and Herzegovina footballers Swiss men's footballers FC Basel players FC Wangen bei Olten players FC Concordia Basel players S.S.D. Varese Calcio players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Lugano players Swiss Super League players Serie C players Swiss Challenge League players Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Italy Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Italy