Dražen Mužinić (born 25 January 1953) is a Croatian 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 ...

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 ...

. Mužinić spent most of his career in his native Yugoslavia. With Hajduk Split he won four league titles, five cups and he was capped by his country 32 times. He was named the

Yugoslav Footballer of the Year The Croatian Footballer of the Year ( hr, Nogometaš godine) is the most prestigious annual association football award in Croatia. It is awarded by the newspaper ''Večernji list'' to the best Croatian football player in the preceding year, regardle ...

in 1977.

Club career

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

manager John Bond signed him in 1980, paying what was then a club record £300,000 for his services. However, his time at Norwich was not a success. He struggled for form and did not speak English, making communication at times impossible. At one match, Bond employed the services of an interpreter from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

to pass on instructions to Mužinić from the touchline. Mužinić made just 23 appearances for Norwich, 17 starts and 6 substitute appearances. He did not score a goal for the club. He made his debut on 13 September 1980 and his final appearance for the club came on 28 December 1982. By then, Bond had left the club to manage Manchester City and his successor Ken Brown cancelled the player's contract at the end of the 1981–82 season. Bond admitted that he had not seen Mužinić play and had signed him on reputation, leading then-Norwich player Justin Fashanu to say "I don't think we got Mužinić, I reckon they sent his milkman."

International career

Mužinić 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 an April 1974

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 the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and earned a total of 32 caps, scoring 1 goal. He represented them at the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

and

Euro 1976 The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 16 and 20 June 1976. Only f ...

. His final international was an October 1979 European Championship qualification match away against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

After football

In his 2002 updated edition of ''Canary Citizens'', Mike Davage reported that Mužinić has been running a restaurant in

Brač Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. The island's tall ...

. He has also worked as a scout for his former club Hajduk Split.

Sources

*''Canary Citizens'' by Mark Davage, John Eastwood, Kevin Platt, published by Jarrold Publishing, (2001),

References

External links

*
Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muzinic, Drazen 1953 births Living people Footballers from Split, Croatia Association football midfielders Yugoslav footballers Yugoslavia international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players HNK Hajduk Split players Norwich City F.C. players Yugoslav First League players English Football League players Yugoslav expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in England HNK Hajduk Split non-playing staff