Ante Ćorić (; born 14 April 1997) is a Croatian 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 lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Croatian Football League The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

club

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 played for the Croatia national team and was capped four times between 2016 and 2017.

Club career

Early years

Ćorić started playing football at the age of 5 at Hrvatski Dragovoljac. When he was 9 years old, he signed for the youth academy of

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 2009, he joined the youth academy of Red Bull Salzburg, despite the interest from other clubs, including

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, Chelsea, and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. On joining the club, he commented, "I wanted to become a Red Bull Salzburg player because my team-mates here are better than players of the same age anywhere else. We train better and more often than others. And I was very impressed by how warmly I was welcomed." In 2013, after four years in Salzburg, he returned to Croatia and signed with

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 ...

for a fee of €900,000.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 16 April 2014, Ćorić made his senior debut against

RNK Split Radnički nogometni klub Split ("Workers' Football Club of Split") commonly known as RNK Split, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Split. History The club had a strong fanbase in the Split's shipyard. The club was fo ...

, coming in as a 69th-minute substitute for

Ivo Pinto Ivo Daniel Ferreira Mendonça Pinto (born 7 January 1990) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a right-back for Dutch club Fortuna Sittard. Brought up at FC Porto, Porto, he spent most of his career abroa ...

. On 26 April, he made his first start in a 1–1 draw against

Lokomotiva Zagreb Nogometni klub Lokomotiva Zagreb (), commonly known as Lokomotiva Zagreb or simply Lokomotiva, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. It competes in the Croatian First Football League, the country's top division. Founded in 1 ...

. On 10 May, he scored his first senior goal for Dinamo in a 1–2 loss to

NK Istra 1961 Nogometni klub Istra 1961 (), commonly referred to as Istra 1961, is a Croatian professional football club based in Pula, that competes in the Croatian First League. It is a common opinion amongst many people that ''Istra 1961'' was founded i ...

. On 18 September, Ćorić came on as a 77th-minute substitute and scored the fifth goal in Dinamo's 2014–15 Europa League opener against

Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club last based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spe ...

, a 5–1 win. With this goal, he became the youngest goalscorer in Europa League history, at the age of 17 years and 157 days. In 2015, the newspaper, ''

Večernji list (also known as '; ) is a Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian daily newspaper published in Zagreb and Mostar. History and profile was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its predecessor ' ('Evening Courier') appeared for the first time on 3 June 1957 in ...

'', awarded Ćorić the Croatian Hope of the Year award. In his nearly five seasons at the club, Ćorić made 143 appearances, winning four league titles, and two cup titles, and was named by the Italian newspaper, ''

Gazzetta Dello Sport (; English: "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any type in Italy (in 2018). History and profile was founded by Eliso Riv ...

'', as one of the "30 Best U20 Players in Europe" in 2017.

Roma

On 28 May 2018, Ćorić joined Italian club

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

for a reported fee of €6 million and signed a five-year contract on €1 million salary per year, after passing his medical.

Almería (loan)

On 27 August 2019, Ćorić joined Spanish club

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

on loan for the 2019–20 season.

VVV-Venlo (loan)

On 3 October 2020, Ćorić moved to Dutch club

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

, on a loan deal until the end of the season. The deal included an option to buy.

Olimpija Ljubljana (loan)

On 16 February 2021, due to a lack of playing time Ćorić ended his loan with VVV-Venlo and joined Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana on a loan deal for the remainder of the

2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga The 2020–21 Slovenian PrvaLiga was the 30th edition of the Slovenian PrvaLiga since its establishment in 1991. The season began on 22 August 2020 and ended on 22 May 2021. NK Celje, Celje were the defending champions, having won their first tit ...

season.

Rudeš

On 13 January 2024, Ćorić returned to Croatia, signing a one-and-a-half-year contract with HNL club Rudeš.

International career

Ćorić played with Croatia's youth teams, from 2012 to 2016, and made his senior international debut in a 1–0 win over Moldova on 27 May 2016, entering as a half-time substitute. In May 2016, he was selected in Croatia's 23-man final squad for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. Ćorić was not selected for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

preliminary squad.

Personal life

Ćorić was born 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 ...

to Herzegovinian Croat parents from

Široki Brijeg Široki Brijeg () is a city and the regional capital of West Herzegovina Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. the town itself had a population of 6,149 and the municipality of 28,929. Name ...

; his father, Miljenko, is a

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

in the Zagreb area with whom Ante attended training sessions starting at a very young age. Ćorić is engaged to Sara Prenga,

Besnik Prenga Besnik Prenga (born 5 June 1969) is an Albanian retired football player and current coach who most recently managed Laçi in the Albanian Superliga. Club career Prenga played the majority of his career in Croatia. He was at Dinamo Zagreb betwee ...

's daughter and

Herdi Prenga Herdi Besnik Prenga (born 31 August 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for RFS in Latvian Optibet Virslīga. Born in Croatia, he represents Albania internationally. Early life and youth career Herdi Prenga was born ...

's sister.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 *

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 Olimpija Ljubljana * Slovenian Cup:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Zürich *

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

: 2021–22 Individual * Croatian Football Hope of the Year: 2015

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coric, Ante Living people 1997 births Footballers from Zagreb Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers Croatian expatriate men's footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb players AS Roma players UD Almería players VVV-Venlo players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players FC Zürich players NK Rudeš players Croatian Football League players Serie A players Segunda División players Eredivisie players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Swiss Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Croatian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland UEFA Euro 2016 players