Bruno Petković (; born 16 September 1994) 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 a forward for the Croatia national team. At club level, he last played for HNL 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 ...

Early career

Petković was born in

Metković Metković () is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia, located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the river Neretva and on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Climate Since records began in 1997, the highest temper ...

, Croatia. His father Jakov Petković hails from Metković and his mother Ruža Nižić is a Herzegovinian Croat from Crveni Grm near

Ljubuški Ljubuški is a city in the West Herzegovina Canton, a federal unit of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Kravica (waterfall), Kravica cascades lie within the city, near the settlement of Studenci, ...

. His childhood football idols were Ronaldo and

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

. He began his youth career with his hometown clubs ONK Metković and

NK Neretva Nogometni klub Neretva Metković (), commonly referred to as NK Neretva or simply Neretva, is a Croatian professional football club based in the town of Metković, in the region of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The club's first name was NK Narona. O ...

, before he went to

in 2007. He remained there until 4 September 2009, when he transferred across town, to the youth academy of 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 next two seasons, he represented

NK HAŠK NK HAŠK 1903 Zagreb is a Croatian football club from Zagreb that currently competes in the Third Football League – Center (3. NL – Centar). The club plays its home matches at the Donje Svetice ground in the Peščenica district of Zagreb. ...

(2010–11) and Hrvatski Dragovoljac (2011–12), prior to his transfer to Italy, with

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

side,

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

Club career

Calcio Catania

On 27 August 2012, Petković officially transferred to

Calcio Catania Catania Football Club, commonly known as Catania, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in Serie C. Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the clu ...

. The transfer fee involved was undisclosed, though Petković was inserted directly into the club's youth academy following his arrival. His first call-up to the senior squad arrived on 27 January 2013, in a 2–1 home victory over

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

in league play. His league debut came on the final matchday of the

2012–13 Serie A The 2012–13 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 111th season of top-tier Italian football, the 81st in a round-robin tournament, and the 3rd since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. ...

campaign, when he appeared as an 89th minute substitute in a 2–2 away draw with

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. Ahead of the

2013–14 Serie A The 2013–14 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 112th season of top-tier Italian football, the 82nd in a round-robin tournament, and the 4th since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B. ...

season, Petković was officially promoted to the first team, and assigned the number 32 jersey.

Trapani and Bologna

In January 2016, Petković moved to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

side

Trapani Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the mai ...

. He scored seven goals in the second round of the Serie B season, as the Sicilian team nearly gained promotion to Serie A, failing only in the final play-off match against

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

. The following season he scored three goals in the first round of the

2016–17 Serie B The 2016–17 Serie B (known as the Serie B ConTe.it for sponsorship reasons) was the 85th season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams were contesting the league: 15 returning from the 2015–16 season, 4 promoted from Lega Pro, ...

season. On 12 January 2017 Petković was purchased by

team

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, for 1.2 million euros. He made total of 21 Serie A appearances for the team, before being loaned to

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

on 11 January 2018.

Dinamo Zagreb

2018–19 season

On 6 August 2018, he joined

on a season-long loan with Dinamo holding an obligation to buy his contract out at the end of the loan if certain conditions are met. On 25 August, he scored his first hat trick for Dinamo in a 3–0 home win over Lokomotiva. As the season wore on, Petković became more important to the squad and played the starring role in the peak of Dinamo Zagreb season, the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic Sta ...

Round of 32 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

home fixture against

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victor ...

, when he assisted the first goal and scored the third in the 4–0 win. In the

Round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

home fixture against Benfica he scored the only goal in the 2–0 win. However, Benfica came back beating Dinamo 3–0 at

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, Ben ...

after extra time. He finished his first season in the club with 7 goals and 3 assists in 34 matches in all competitions.

2019–20 season

Petković was instrumental to Dinamo Zagreb's successful Champions League

qualifying Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

campaign, scoring four goals against Saburtalo Tbilisi home and away,

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

away, and Rosenborg home. His performances earned him a new contract with Dinamo, signed on 13 September 2019, which keeps him in the club until 2024. He made his Champions League debut on 18 September 2019 in a 4–0 home win over

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

and scored his debut goal on 6 November in a 3–3 home draw with

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

. On 17 June 2020, he scored a last minute goal in a 3–2 home victory over Slaven Belupo, the first home game of Dinamo's new coach Igor Jovićević. On 27 June, he suffered an injury in a goalless draw with

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

that ruled him out for the rest of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

2020–21 season

After missing the first Dinamo's game of the

against Lokomotiva due to the injury, Petković returned on 21 August for a game against Istra 1961, coming off the bench and scoring the only goal in the 1–0 victory. During the season, Petković was the target of criticism from the media and fans due to his inconsistency and poor form. However, on 18 February 2021, in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, he scored a brace and provided

Luka Ivanušec Luka Ivanušec (; born 26 November 1998) is a Croatian professional association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, left winger or attacking midfielder for Eredivisie club Feyenoord and the Croatia national football team, Croa ...

with a pre-assist for

Iyayi Atiemwen Iyayi Believe Atiemwen (born 24 January 1996) is a Nigerian footballer who plays as a winger for Iraq Stars League club Al-Najaf. Club career Atiemwen started his youth career at Bendel Insurance F.C. before moving to Kayseri Erciyesspor in 2 ...

's third goal as Dinamo defeated

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

3–2 away.

2021–22 season

On 30 September 2021, he scored two goals from the penalty spot in a 3–0 away win over

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

in the

2022–23 season

On 2 November 2022, he scored a goal in a 2–1 away defeat against Chelsea in the Champions League.

International career

Youth

At youth level, he was not capped as he was not good enough for Croatia U21.

Senior

Petković received his first senior

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 ...

call-up as a replacement for the injured Marko Livaja, for UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in March 2019. On 21 March, he debuted in a 2–1 victory against the former opponent. Petković scored his first goal for the national team on 11 June in a friendly loss to

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. Petković turned out to be instrumental to Croatia's successful

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

qualifying campaign, scoring four goals and assisting one. However, following the tournament's

postponement Postponement is a business strategy employed in manufacturing and supply chain management which maximizes possible benefit and minimizes risk by delaying further investment into a product or service until the last possible moment, or where a manuf ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Petković was heavily criticized for his inefficiency in the national team during Croatia's disappointing 2020–21 Nations League campaign where they managed to win only three points in six games. In the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

quarter-final on 9 December, Petković scored the equalizing goal against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

to take the game to penalties.

Personal life

On 3 April 2021, Petković and his partner Iva Šarić became parents of a baby boy, whom they named Adrian. Petković is an active amateur

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player and he regularly participates in humanitarian chess tournaments organized by Croatian chess grandmaster and Vice President of

European Chess Union The European Chess Union (ECU) is an independent association for the interests of European chess. The European Chess Union was founded on August 30, 1985, with the organization's founding meeting taking place in Graz, Austria. Board The Europ ...

Alojzije Janković Alojzije Janković (born 2 April 1983) is a Croatian chess player. He holds the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in 2006. His peak Elo rating is 2593. Chess career Also in 2006 Janković won the Zagreb Open tournament, held in his n ...

. Petković was an inspiration for a scene in the first episode of

RTL Televizija RTL (previously known as RTL Televizija) is a Croatian free-to-air television network founded on 30 April 2004. It was owned by the RTL Group from 2004 to 2022. Since 1 June 2022, it is owned by the CME Group. It is the second commercial television ...

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

show '' San snova'', where Marko Braić's character's reaction to being interviewed by reporters was identical to that of Petković from the

Zagreb Airport Zagreb Franjo Tuđman Airport () or Zagreb Airport () () is an international airport serving Zagreb, Croatia. It is the busiest airport in Croatia, handling about 4.31 million passengers and some 13,025 tons of cargo in 2024. Named after ...

in 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb * HNL: 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24 *

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 ...

: 2020–21, 2023–24 * Croatian Super Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Croatia *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third place:

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

runner-up: 2022–23 Individual * Football Oscar – Best Prva HNL player:

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* Football Oscar – Prva HNL Team of the Year:

* ''Tportal'' Prva HNL Player of the Year: 2019 *

Croatian First 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. Establishe ...

top assist provided: 2019–20, 2020–21 * CIES Croatian First Football League Team of the Season: 2021–22 *

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 ...

Player of the Year: 2023–24 *

Team of the Year: 2023–24 *UEFA Nations League Finals Goal of the Tournament:

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Bruno Petković
at Goal.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petkovic, Bruno 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Metković Croatian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers Croatian expatriate men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Croatian Football League players NK Neretva players Catania FC players SSD Varese Calcio players AC Reggiana 1919 players Virtus Entella players FC Trapani 1905 players Bologna FC 1909 players Hellas Verona FC players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2024 players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century Croatian sportsmen