Sanel Kuljić (born 10 October 1977) is an Austrian former 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 played as a striker.

Club career

Born in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

, Kuljić started his professional career in Salzburg but made his name at

Austrian Football First League The Austrian Football Second League (german: 2. Liga) is the second-highest professional division in Austrian football. It was formerly called the First League (''Erste Liga''), from 2002 to 2018. The division currently contains 16 teams, and t ...

side

SV Pasching SV, Sv, sv, etc. may refer to: Places and language * El Salvador, ISO 3166-1 country code SV * South Vietnam, an extinct state * Svalbard, Norway, FIPS country code SV * Swedish language, ISO 639-1 language code sv * Silicon Valley, a region in n ...

with whom he won promotion to the

Austrian Football Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

in 2002. He repeated that feat with

SV Ried SV Ried is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club from Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria. The team plays its home matches at Josko Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 7,680. After being relegated from Austrian Football Bundesli ...

in 2005, when he also became 2nd division top goalscorer. In 2006, he became league top goalscorer and subsequently moved abroad to join Swiss side

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

but controversially returned to Austria after one year when he signed for Vienna club

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

. Kuljić left FK Austria Wien for newly formed Austrian second-division side

FC Magna Wiener Neustadt FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakist ...

– who acquired the playing licence of

SC Schwanenstadt SC Schwanenstadt was an Austrian football club from Schwanenstadt, Upper Austria. The club was founded on 16 March 1946, it achieved promotion to the Landeliga (IV) in 2000 and to the Regionalliga Mitte one year later, where in 2005 they won t ...

for the 2008–09 campaign – and was joined by Austria Wien team-mates

Yüksel Sariyar Yüksel Sariyar (born 1 August 1979) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. Club career Sariyar came through the youth ranks at Austria Wien but he made his professional debut at Gençlerbirliği befo ...

and

Sašo Fornezzi Sašo Fornezzi (born 11 December 1982) is a Slovenian former professional football goalkeeper. Club career Fornezzi started his career at Dravograd and then played three seasons for Celje. He was also loaned to Krško in the Slovenian Second L ...

. On 25 November, Kuljić scored four goals and his team Wiener Neustadt beat LASK Linz 4–1.

International career

Kuljić is of Bosnian descent; his father emigrated to Austria from

SR Bosnia and Herzegovina The Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Социјалистичка Pепублика Босна и Херцеговина), commonly referred to as Socia ...

in the 1970s. made his debut for the Austria national team in an August 2005 friendly match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and has earned 20 caps, scoring three goals. He became a regular in the national team squad but was surprisingly overlooked for

EURO 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

Extortion

In November 2013, Kuljić was taken in custody after former Kapfenberger teammate

Dominique Taboga Dominique Taboga (born 6 November 1982) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a defender, before his arrest in a match-fixing scandal. Career Early years Taboga was born in Vienna, Austria. He started his career at St. P� ...

claimed he was blackmailed by Kuljić to manipulate match results. After being accused of trying to manipulate 18 matches in the first two Austrian tiers, Kuljić was sentenced to five years in prison in autumn 2014. He was released early in March 2017 for good conduct.

Drug dealing

In September 2019 Kuljić was arrested for drug dealing. In December he was handed a one-year prison sentence with Kuljić stating that he had only been involved with drug dealing because of a

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

addiction he was suffering from.

Honours

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 1997 * Austrian Bundesliga top goalscorer: 2006

References

External links

Player profile
– FC Magna Wiener Neustadt
Profile
– Austria Archiv * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuljic, Sanel 1977 births Living people People from Hallein Austrian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Association football forwards Austrian footballers Austria international footballers Austrian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland FC Red Bull Salzburg players LASK players SV Ried players FC Sion players FK Austria Wien players Kapfenberger SV players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players Expatriate footballers in Greece Match fixers Sportspeople banned for life Footballers from Salzburg (state) Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Greece