Nenad Gračan (born 23 January 1962) is a Croatian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former player who played as a

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 ...

. He is the coach of the

Croatia women's national football team The Croatia women's national football team represents the Republic of Croatia in international Women's association football, football. The team is managed by the Croatian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country. Hist ...

Club career

Born in Rijeka,

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 ...

, Gračan started playing professionally for hometown's

NK Orijent HNK Orijent is a football club from Sušak, the eastern part of the city of Rijeka, Croatia. The club was established under the name ''Orient'' in 1919. They compete in the Croatian Second Football League. It is a phoenix club of NK Orijent w ...

and, soon thereafter,

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football, football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top ...

, amassing nearly 150 official appearances. He then moved to another club in his native

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, HNK Hajduk Split. During his first match at

Hajduk A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, p ...

Gračan was injured while playing against his former club by Mladen Mladenović who nearly broke Gračan's leg. Because of this injury he appeared intermittently for

over the course of four full seasons. Late into 1989, Gračan signed with

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 ...

club Real Oviedo. Joined by compatriots Janko Janković and

Nikola Jerkan Nikola Jerkan (born 8 December 1964) is a Croatian former footballer who played as a defender. Jerkan was born in Split and started playing football professionally for NK Zagreb. Playing career Club He started his career in youth ranks of Ju ...

in his second season, he helped the

Asturians Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who wer ...

finish sixth and qualify for the

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

by contributing with 26 matches, and eventually appeared in more than 100 games overall. Aged almost 31, Gračan left Oviedo and returned to his country, now independent. After two years of inactivity he played a handful of games with first professional club Rijeka, but retired shortly after. In the following decade, he took up coaching, starting with his last team as a player, but he rarely settled.

International career

Gračan made his debut for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in a March 1984

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

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 ...

and earned a total of 10 caps, scoring 2 goals. He never attended any major international tournament. In 1984, the then 21-year-old helped the Olympic squad win the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, featuring in all games but one and scoring in the quarterfinals against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

(5–2). His final international was a May 1986 friendly away against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

International appearances

International goals

Managerial career

In June 2001, he was named manager of Hajduk Split. Gračan was dismissed as manager of

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

in May 2007 and he took charge of Rijeka for a third time in November 2009.

Personal life

Gračan married former miss Croatia Daniela Mihalic in 1999. The couple have three daughters.

Career statistics

As a player

Managerial statistics

Club

National team

: *Dates of first and last games under Gračan; not dates of official appointments

Honours

Player

;Hajduk Split *

Yugoslav Cup The Yugoslav Cup ( hr, Pokal Jugoslavije; sr, Куп Југославије; sl, Pokal Jugoslavije, mk, Куп на Југославија), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Kup kralja Aleksandra, ...

: 1987 ;Yugoslavia *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

bronze medal: 1984 ;Individual * SN Yellow Shirt award: 1985-86 * NK Rijeka all time XI by Novi list

References

External links

*
National team data
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gracan, Nenad 1962 births Living people Footballers from Rijeka Association football midfielders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Yugoslavia Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Croatian footballers HNK Orijent players HNK Rijeka players HNK Hajduk Split players Real Oviedo players Yugoslav First League players La Liga players Croatian Football League players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Croatian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Croatian football managers HNK Rijeka managers HNK Hajduk Split managers FC Koper managers NK Osijek managers NK Kamen Ingrad managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb managers NK Istra 1961 managers NK Croatia Sesvete managers Croatia national under-21 football team managers Croatian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia