Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972) is a Croatian retired

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 striker.

Club career

Born in

Nova Gradiška Nova Gradiška is a town located in the Brod-Posavina County of Croatia, population 14,229 (2011). It is located in the historic region of Slavonia, near the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first word in the name means ''New'', and there ...

, Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to HAŠK Građanski in 1992, before going abroad to play for Calcio Padova in Italy,

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in Spain and Panathinaikos in Greece, where he retired in June 2004. His biggest personal success at club level came when he topped the goalscoring charts of the 1993–94 Croatian First Football League, netting 29 goals for Dinamo Zagreb that season. The record remained unbroken for 13 years before

Eduardo da Silva Eduardo Alves da Silva (, ; born 25 February 1983), commonly known as Eduardo and sometimes nicknamed Dudu, is a former professional footballer. Capable of playing any forward position, he started as a striker, but was deployed mostly as a ...

scored 34 goals for the same club in 2006–07. He remains the youngest player to have scored the most goals in a single season in Croatia. He also won the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

and Supercopa de España with Valencia in 1999, as well as a Greek

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

with Panathinaikos in 2004.

International career

Vlaović was a member of the Croatia national team for over ten years, between July 1992 and August 2002. He won a total of 52 international caps and scored 15 goals for the team (plus a single goal in his only appearance for Croatia B in a friendly against Romania in 2001). Vlaović made his international debut for Croatia on 5 July 1992 in their friendly match against Australia in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, during the team's three-match tour through Australia. After the tour, Vlaović only made four international appearances in just over three and a half years, and having undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain in 1995, he was only able to make one appearance in the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

qualifying. However, he started to play regularly for Croatia in early 1996. On 13 March 1996, he scored his first goals for the team in a friendly match against

Korea Republic South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, netting a flawless

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in Croatia's 3–0 victory. He was subsequently added to the Croatian squad for the UEFA Euro 1996 finals in

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, appearing in all of the team's four matches before they were knocked out by eventual champions,

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 the quarter-finals. In Croatia's first match at the tournament, against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, he came off the bench to replace

Alen Bokšić Alen Bokšić (; born 21 January 1970) is a former Croatian professional footballer. A forward who spent most of his career in France and Italy, he was renowned for his technique and power, and is regarded as one of the greatest players in the ...

in the final 20 minutes and scored the only goal of the match in the 86th minute, thus becoming the first goalscorer for Croatia in a major international tournament. Two years later, Vlaović was a member of the Croatian squad that won the bronze medal at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals in France, their first

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 ...

appearance. He appeared in all of Croatia's seven matches at the tournament, although only making one appearance over the entire 90 minutes in the semi-finals against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In the 80th minute of the quarter-finals against highly favoured Germany, he scored the second goal in Croatia's 3–0 victory, which all but secured the team's place in the semi-finals. After a year and a half of absence from the national team, Vlaović made his international comeback in January 2001, making an appearance for Croatia B in a friendly match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, also scoring one goal in the match. He went on to make four appearances and score one goal in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

. He was also added to Croatia's 23-man squad for the finals of that tournament, but was left an unused substitute in all three group matches as the team failed to qualify for the knock-out stages. He won his last international cap in a friendly match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

on 21 August 2002.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football (soccer), football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, i ...

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

* Croatian Football Cup:

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 ...

Valencia * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

* Supercopa de España:

Panathinaikos * Superleague Greece: 2003–04 *

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most imp ...

: 2004 Croatia *

: third place

* 1996 International Cup Tournament Individual * SN Yellow Shirt Award: 1993 *

top scorer: 1993, 1994 * Croatian Cup top scorer: 1993 *

Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport ( hr, Državna nagrada za šport "Franjo Bučar") is the highest recognition that Republic of Croatia gives for extraordinary achievements and contributions of remarkable meaning for the development of sport in Cr ...

: 1998 Orders * Order of DH Franjo Bučar

Order of Danica Hrvatska with face of Franjo Bučar - 1995 * Ribbon of an Order of the Croatian Trefoil

Order of the Croatian Trefoil - 1998

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vlaovic, Goran 1972 births Living people People from Nova Gradiška Sport in Brod-Posavina County Men's association football forwards Yugoslav footballers Croatian footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers Croatia men's B international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players NK Osijek players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Calcio Padova players Valencia CF players Panathinaikos F.C. players Yugoslav First League players Croatian Football League players Serie A players La Liga players Super League Greece players Croatian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Greece Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Greece