Nikola Gulan (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...

: Никола Гулан; born 23 March 1989) is a Serbian 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 for Swedish club

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg. It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Formed on 2 Augu ...

, as a defender or

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 boundarie ...

. Gulan was part of the European selection that won the 2007 Meridian Cup in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

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 ...

triumphed over

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, winning 10–1 on aggregate. They won the first leg 6–1 and the second leg 4–0.

Club career

Born in

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 ...

, Gulan graduated from

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

's youth system, and made his senior debuts in the 2006–07 campaign, aged only 17. On 4 August 2007, he signed a four-year deal with Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

, for a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2.8 million fee. Gulan was unable to register as a

player, as the club had no non-EU registration quota, and then was loaned to fellow league side

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

in January 2008, as a replacement to

FC Rostov FC Rostov (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб Ростов) is a Russian professional football club based in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast. The club are members of the Russian Premier League, and play at the Rostov Arena. After the 20 ...

-bound Ivan Živanović. He subsequently returned to the ''Viola'' in June, after only appearing once on the bench in a 1–1 home draw against

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on 22 March. On 2 February 2009, Gulan joined

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members o ...

on loan until the end of the 2008–09 season. He played his first match for the club on 12 April, starting in a 2–3 away loss against

TuS Koblenz TuS Koblenz is a German association football club, located in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Fussball Club Deutschland Neuendorf, which was formed in 1911, is viewed as the foundation of the modern club. History Nazi era (1933–1945) The or ...

for the 2. Bundesliga championship; he appeared in further two matches, as his side finished 12th. Gulan moved to

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

in August 2009, also in a temporary deal. He appeared in 25 matches during the season, being also converted as a

right back 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 ...

in the process. Gulan subsequently returned to Fiorentina, and appeared in his first Serie A match on 26 September 2010, coming on as a second half substitute in a 2–0 home win against

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. He started his first match in the competition on 17 October, in a 1–2 away loss against former side Sampdoria. In January 2012, Gulan was loaned to

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

until June. After appearing in only ten minutes, he joined

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan deal. After the loan with Modena expired, Gulan rescinded with Fiorentina and returned to his former club

, signing a two-year contract on 28 June 2013. He was released by the club in July 2014, and joined

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

on 1 September.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulan, Nikola 1989 births Living people Footballers from Belgrade Serbian footballers Association football midfielders Serbia under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Serbia FK Partizan players ACF Fiorentina players U.C. Sampdoria players TSV 1860 Munich players Empoli F.C. players A.C. ChievoVerona players Modena F.C. 2018 players RCD Mallorca players Royal Excel Mouscron players Hapoel Haifa F.C. players BK Häcken players Balzan F.C. players Serbian SuperLiga players Serie A players Serie B players 2. Bundesliga players Segunda División players Belgian Pro League players Israeli Premier League players Allsvenskan players Maltese Premier League players Serbian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Israel Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Malta Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Malta