Željko Pavlović (born 2 March 1971) is a retired

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Pavlović started his professional career in 1989 at the club

FK Željezničar FK or fk may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block * Funky Kong, a video game character Place * F ...

from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and transferred after three seasons to Croatian club

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

, where he spent one season as understudy to

Dražen Ladić Dražen Ladić (; born 1 January 1963) is a Croatian professional football coach and former player and who is the current Analyst of the Croatia national team. Playing career Club Ladić was born in Čakovec, but grew up in the nearby village o ...

and made three domestic league appearances before leaving the club for their city rivals

NK Zagreb Nogometni klub Zagreb (''Zagreb Football Club''), commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb (), is a Croatian football club based in the capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of Croatian footbal ...

in the summer of 1994. He spent two seasons with Zagreb as the club's first-choice goalkeeper and then he moved abroad by signing with

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n club

FC Linz FC Stahl Linz is an Austrian football club, based in Linz, Upper Austria. They currently play in 2. Klasse Mitte, the eighth tier of Austrian football. History SV Eisen und Stahl, SK VÖEST Linz and SK VOEST Linz It was founded on 30 June 194 ...

for the 1996–97 season. He subsequently continued to play for

LASK Linz Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

after FC Linz merged with the club in the summer of 1997. At club level, Pavlović played for LASK Linz until the end of the 2000–01 season and then he left the club for

RSC Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Div ...

from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. However, he never managed to establish himself as the first-choice goalkeeper in the Anderlecht team in both of the two seasons he spent there and returned to Austria by signing with Wüstenrot Salzburg in July 2003. He spent only one half-season with Salzburg and went on to play for

FC Kärnten FC Kärnten was an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club based in Klagenfurt, Carinthia (state), Carinthia. It was founded in 1920 under the name of KSK Klagenfurt. History Austria Klagenfurt Austria Klagenfurt played success ...

until the end of the 2003–04 season. In July 2004, Pavlović signed with

Wacker Tirol FC Wacker Innsbruck is an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck. The club was formed in June 2002 as ''FC Wacker Tirol'', and play their home games at Tivoli-Neu. The club regard themselves as the spiritual continuation of the team ...

and has been the club's first-choice goalkeeper ever since, making a total of 57

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

appearances until the end of the 2005–06 season.

International career

Pavlović made his debut for the Croatia national team playing as the team's substitute goalkeeper in the second half of their friendly match against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

on 26 March 1996 in

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

. He subsequently had to wait for more than three years to win his second international cap for the team, playing all 90 minutes in a friendly match against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 13 November 1999 at the

Stade de France Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the List of football stadiums in France, largest stadium i ...

. In 2000, he made three appearances for Croatia in international friendlies before he went on to play the only competitive international match in his career, playing all 90 minutes against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in the Croatia national team's second qualifying match for the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

on 11 October 2000 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. He made his last appearance for the Croatia national team in their friendly match against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on 25 April 2001 in Varaždin. Pavlović won a total of seven international caps for Croatia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlovic, Zeljko 1971 births Living people Footballers from Sarajevo Men's association football goalkeepers Yugoslav men's footballers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers FK Željezničar Sarajevo players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Zagreb players FC Stahl Linz (2013) players LASK players R.S.C. Anderlecht players FC Kärnten players FC Wacker Innsbruck (2002) players NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac players Yugoslav First League players Croatian Football League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium