Teddy Mark Šime Lučić (; born 15 April 1973) is a Swedish former

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He played as a centre-back. Lučić made his debut for Sweden in 1995, and represented his country at three

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s (

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, 2002, and 2006) and two

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

s (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2004), earning a total of 86

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

Early life

Lučić was born on 15 April 1973 in

Biskopsgården Biskopsgården is a district (''stadsdelsnämndsområde'') in Gothenburg Municipality, Sweden. History Today you can find the first trace of humans by the hillsides that was once beaches in an archipelago. The border between Sweden and Norway ...

, Gothenburg to

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 ...

n father, Krešimir, and

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

mother, Annis. His father Krešimir was also a football player. In 1966, Krešimir moved to Sweden where he played football. In 1971, his father was offered to play for

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and approved membership in the Swedish ...

but declined because he thought he was too old, at age 27. The Lučić family decided to live in Sweden but visited Croatia and Finland often. As a boy, Lučić attended the Bjurslätt School in Hisingen, which is only 500 meters from where

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Formed on 2 August 1940, Häcken has p ...

have their exercise equipment. Due to his parents' heritage, Lučić had Yugoslavian passport rather than a Swedish one, which prevented him from playing in the Swedish Junior Team.

Club career

Early career

He began playing for Lundby IF as an 18-year-old for whom he played 44 times in the Swedish league and scored 10 goals from fullback. He moved to

Västra Frölunda IF Västra Frölunda Idrottsförening (English: Västra Frölunda Sports Association) is a Swedish football club located in Gothenburg. It was formed on 2 January 1930 and has played ten seasons in the Allsvenskan, the highest Swedish league. In t ...

in 1993 for a two-year spell in which he played 68 matches. In 1996, he moved on to

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

, landing the Swedish championship in his first season.

Bologna

Lučić went abroad to Italy upon leaving IFK Göteborg in 1998. However, he found his opportunities limited at his new club and consequently made just nine league appearances in the

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 Cop ...

in a two-year spell.

AIK

Lučić returned to Sweden in 2000, signing for

AIK Fotboll AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

. He made 58 appearances and scored four times. He left the club in 2003 to move to Germany.

Loan to Leeds United

Lučić's period at AIK Fotboll was broken up by a loan spell at English club

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

, starting in 2002. During his time in England, he made a total of 17 league appearances and scored one goal, in a 3–2 defeat at Chelsea in January 2003. His loan spell ended in 2003 after Leeds decided not to sign him on a permanent deal. AIK had offered Lučić to a number of clubs.

Bayer Leverkusen

Lučić signed for

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

directly from Leeds in May 2003. He failed to get a major impact for the starting 11 in

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, and only played 11 times for the club, before he left for Sweden in December 2004.

Return to Sweden

Lučić went back to Sweden for a second time to sign for

, where he made 70 appearances and scored 8 goals. In 2008, Lučić moved again to the ninth club of his career,

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Allsvenskan and have spent ...

where he was a regular in the starting eleven until the end of his career. After IF Elfsborgs last game of the season, on 7 November 2010, Lucic officially ended his career as a player.

International career

Lučić played 86 times for the Swedish national team, mostly as a full back. He was handed his debut against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in June 1995. Since 2004, he played as centre back. Lučić played in

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

, and the 2002 and 2006

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(in

he was unused substitute having been called up to replace Jan Eriksson). Against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, in what turned out to be Sweden's final 2006 World Cup match, he was given two

yellow cards Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

by Brazilian referee Carlos Eugênio Simon, and sent off in the 35th minute.

Personal life

Due to his multinational background, Lučić had the option to play for two other countries—his mother is

and his father

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 ...

n. He is fluent in Croatian and also speaks some Finnish. He has a summer cottage in

Lappeenranta Lappeenranta (; sv, Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality in the region of South Karelia, about from the Russian border and from the town of Vyborg (''Viipuri''). It is situated on the shore of the Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, and ...

, Finland, and is a fan of Lappeenranta-based first division football team Rakuunat and ice hockey team

SaiPa SAIPA ( fa, سایپا, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'') was established in 1965 as with 75% Iranian ownersh ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

Honours

;IFK Göteborg * Allsvenskan: 1996 Sweden *

third place:

References

External links

Teddy Lučić at Leverkusen who's who
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucic, Teddy 1973 births Living people Footballers from Gothenburg Swedish people of Croatian descent Swedish people of Finnish descent Swedish footballers Association football defenders Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Lundby IF players Ettan Fotboll players Division 3 (Swedish football) players Västra Frölunda IF players IFK Göteborg players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Serie A players Bologna F.C. 1909 players Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy AIK Fotboll players Expatriate footballers in England Premier League players Leeds United F.C. players Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Bundesliga players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany BK Häcken players IF Elfsborg players