Robert Berić (born 17 June 1991) is a Slovenian 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

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club Tianjin Jinmen Tiger. In the 2014–15 season, he ranked 11th in the

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture of a football boot. ...

award.

Club career

Berić began his career at the age of five in

Krško Krško (; german: Gurkfeld) is a town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the City municipality of Krško. The town lies on the Sava River and on the northwest edge of the Krško Plain ( sl, Krško polje), which is part of the larger Krka Flat ...

youth teams before being promoted to their main squad in the 2007–08 season. In 2008, he signed for Interblock. He made his debut at Interblock as a substitute in a 2–1 away victory over Drava Ptuj. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–0 win over Primorje on 7 December 2008. In total, he played 34 games for Interblock in the Slovenian first division, scoring 12 goals. In August 2010, Berić joined

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

together with his teammate

Josip Iličić Josip Iličić (; born 29 January 1988) is a Slovenian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Slovenian PrvaLiga club Maribor. Iličić began his professional career with Slovenian club Bonifika, later also playing for Interblock a ...

, signing a four-year contract. In June 2013, he moved to

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian f ...

for a reported fee of €1 million. In the 2013–14 season, he amassed 10 goals and 11 assists. In 2014, he left Sturm Graz for league rivals

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

. The transfer fee was estimated at between €700,000 and 800,000. In his first season, he became the league second goalscorer netting 27 goals in 33 appearances which earned him 11th place in the

award.

Saint-Étienne

On 31 August 2015, Berić joined

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

on a four-year deal while the transfer fee paid to Rapid Wien was reported as €6 or 7.5 million. He quickly established himself in the starting lineup and began scoring goals for the club in both the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

and the

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campaigns. However, on 8 November 2015 during an away Ligue 1 match against

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, Berić suffered a knee injury which sidelined him for the rest of the

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 ...

. During his time at Saint-Étienne, Berić received the nickname "Terminator". On 30 August 2017, Berić joined

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

on a one-year loan. Saint-Étienne recalled Berić from his loan spell at Anderlecht on 1 January 2018. On 22 April 2018, Berić came off the bench at the start of the second half and scored twice as Saint-Étienne came from behind to beat

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

2–1 in a home Ligue 1 match. On 18 May 2019, Berić scored twice as Saint-Étienne defeated

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

3–0 in a home Ligue 1 match to secure a top-four finish and qualification for the

2019–20 UEFA Europa League The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Sevilla defeated Inter Milan in the fina ...

Chicago Fire

On 18 January 2020,

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club Chicago Fire announced that it had acquired Berić via a transfer deal from Saint-Étienne, and that he had signed for the club as a

Designated Player The Designated Player Rule, nicknamed the Beckham Rule, allows Major League Soccer franchises to sign up to three players that would be considered outside their salary cap (either by offering the player higher wages or by paying a transfer fee ...

. Berić netted in his debut against the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

, but failed to win the game, losing 2–1. Following the 2021 season, Berić had his contract option declined by Chicago and left the club.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Berić goal''.

References

External links

Robert Berić
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beric, Robert 1991 births Living people People from Krško Slovenian footballers Association football forwards Slovenian expatriate footballers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate footballers in China Slovenian Second League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 3 players Belgian Pro League players Major League Soccer players Chinese Super League players NK Krško players NK IB 1975 Ljubljana players NK Maribor players SK Sturm Graz players SK Rapid Wien players AS Saint-Étienne players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Chicago Fire FC players Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players Slovenia youth international footballers Slovenia under-21 international footballers Slovenia international footballers Designated Players (MLS)