Mario Ćuže (; born 24 April 1999) is a Croatian 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 plays as a winger for

Bosnian Premier League The m:tel Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, m:tel Premijer liga Bosne i Hercegovine / м:тел Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), also known as Liga 12, is the top tier football league in Bosnia and He ...

club

Zrinjski Mostar Zrinjski Mostar is a sports association from the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was formed in 1905. Member clubs *Football: **HŠK Zrinjski Mostar *Basketball: **HKK Zrinjski Mostar (men's) **ŽKK Zrinjski Mostar (women's) *Han ...

Club career

Dinamo Zagreb

Born in

Metković Metković () is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia, located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the river Neretva and on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics The total population of the city municipal ...

Dubrovnik-Neretva County The Dubrovnik-Neretva County (; hr, Dubrovačko-neretvanska županija, ) is the southernmost county of Croatia, located in south Dalmatia. The county seat is Dubrovnik and other large towns are Korčula, Metković, Opuzen and Ploče. The Munici ...

, Ćuže progressed through the youth system of

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 ...

Istra 1961 (loan)

In 2019, Ćuže was sent on loan to Istra 1961 in the

Croatian First Football League The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football (soccer), football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, i ...

. He made his professional debut with the club on 26 July 2019, against

Inter Zaprešić Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

in the domestic league. Starting as a

left winger 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 boundarie ...

that day, he stood out by scoring a

brace Brace(s) or bracing may refer to: Medical * Orthopaedic brace, a device used to restrict or assist body movement ** Back brace, a device limiting motion of the spine *** Milwaukee brace, a kind of back brace used in the treatment of spinal cur ...

, securing a 2–0 away win. On 3 August, only his second game, Ćuže scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 3–1 win over

Varaždin ) , image_photo = , image_skyline = , image_flag = Flag of Varaždin.svg , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shield = Grb_Grad ...

, bringing his tally to five goals in only two professional appearances.

Lokomotiva (loan)

In August 2020, Ćuže was sent on loan to Lokomotiva for one season, but returned to Dinamo in October.

Dnipro-1 (loan)

In February 2021, Ćuže joined

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

club

Dnipro-1 The "Dnipro-1" Regiment ( uk, Полк «Дніпро-1») is a Special Tasks Patrol Police regiment subordinated to Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The regiment is based in Dnipro. History The unit was first established as "Dnipro-1 ...

on loan until the end of the season. He made his debut eight days later in a 2–0 win against

Inhulets Petrove Football Club Inhulets Petrove ( uk, "Інгулець" Петрове) is a professional Ukrainian football club from the town of Petrove, Kirovohrad Oblast that competes in the Ukrainian Premier League following the promotion from 2019–20 Ukra ...

. He scored his first two goals for the club on 23 March to secure a 2–0 away win over

Desna Chernihiv Football Club Desna Chernihiv ( uk, ФК «Десна» Чернігів) is a Ukrainian football club based in Chernihiv. The original name of the club was "Avanhard" (FC Avanhard Chernihiv) during its first year of existence as part of a re ...

. In July 2021, the deal was extended to a loan until 31 January 2022, as he faced tough competition in his position at Dinamo. Ćuže spent the remainder of the 2021–22 season playing in the second division for Druga NL team Dinamo Zagreb II. On 2 May 2022, he scored one goal and provided an assist in a match against Dubrava that ended in a 3–1 victory.

Zrinjski Mostar (loan)

On 13 June 2022, Ćuže was sent on loan to

club

. He made his debut for the club on 6 July, starting in the

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 ...

qualifier against

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff (russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a Moldovan professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnist ...

. On 28 July, Ćuže scored his first goal for Zrinjski in the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

win over

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. His club eventually made it to the

play-off round The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, where they lost on penalties to Slovan Bratislava.

International career

Ćuže gained his first cap for the Croatia under-21 team on 5 September 2019 against the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

in a friendly match. His team won by a score of 3–0. On 11 October 2019, he made first assist during a 4–1 friendly win over

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 ...

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva ...

: 2019–20 Zrinjski Mostar *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Bosnian Cup The Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kup Bosne i Hercegovine, Куп Босне и Херцеговине) is a knock-out football competition contested annually by clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The winner ...

, 2023–24

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuze, Mario 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Metković Men's association football forwards Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb players GNK Dinamo Zagreb II players NK Istra 1961 players NK Lokomotiva Zagreb players SC Dnipro-1 players HŠK Zrinjski Mostar players Croatian Football League players First Football League (Croatia) players Ukrainian Premier League players Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Bosnia and Herzegovina