Darko Matić (born September 26, 1980) 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 ...

n professional

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 ...

player who played as a

defensive 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. ...

. He is currently the Sports Director of

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

side Dalian Yifang.

Club career

Matić left his country because of the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and would move to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

to begin his football career with

Tennis Borussia Berlin Tennis Borussia Berlin is a German football club based in the locality of Westend in Berlin. History The team was founded in 1902 as ''Berliner Tennis- und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia'' taking its name from its origins as a tennis and ...

's youth team and Tennis Borussia Berlin first team . He played his first game in the first team in the second division in Germany when he was 17, under the coach Winfried Schaefer. In summer 2000 he would join second tier Swiss football club

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

. Matic would help FC Thun winning the promotion after 50 years at the end of the 2001-02 season. In 2002, he signed for

HNK Orašje HNK Orašje ( Croatian: ''Hrvatski nogometni klub Orašje'', lit. 'Croatian Football Club Orašje') is a professional association football club from the town of Orašje that is situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club was founded in 1996, ...

in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Premier League. In 2004, Matić joined German team 1. FC Eschborn for a short period. In the 2004–05 league season he would join once again top tier side NK Orašje and play in the

Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina (; ; sr-Cyrl, Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), officially known as the Wwin League of Bosnia and Herzegovina for sponsorship purposes, is the top tier football leagu ...

, helping them finish third and win the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Cup. Once again moving on to this time Slovak football club

FC Senec FC Senec was a football club from Senec, Slovakia. It existed in years 1994–2008. After 2007/2008 season it was merged with FK DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda. Previous names *1990 – STK Senec *1992 – FK Koba Senec *1995 – FK VT ...

in the 2005–06 league season he would help them win promotion to the

Slovak Superliga The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

. He was captain of his team Senec and he got an invitation from the Slovak Football Federation to play for the

Slovakia national football team The Slovakia national football team () represents Slovakia in men's international Association football, football competition and it is governed by the Slovak Football Association (SFZ), the governing body for football in Slovakia. Slovakia's hom ...

. He transferred to

club Tianjin Teda in 2007 and would quickly become an integral member of the team by playing in all 28 games of the season. The following season when he aided the team to a fourth-place finish and had a chance to play

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

football. At the beginning of the 2009 league season

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club (), known in AFC competitions as Beijing FC, is a Chinese professional football club based in Beijing, that competes in . Beijing Guoan plays its home matches at the Workers' Stadium, located within Chaoyang Distr ...

were interested at his defensive abilities and signed him, this was to prove a successful signing when Matić once more quickly became an integral member of the team and aided Beijing to win their first league title. Matić featured in most Beijing Guoan matches since joining the club including a run into the last 16 of the AFC Champions League where Guoan lost out to the eventual runners-up, Korean side FC Seoul. He scored a rare goal toward the end of 2014 in a 2-2 draw with Shandong Luneng. Matić has become a rare foreign player in Chinese football in that he has played over 200 games for Beijing Guoan by the end of the 2014 Chinese Super League season for one club and is now top of the list for appearances by a CSL foreign player. He subsequently has become a legend with the fans in Beijing and has a following on Sina Weibo of over 1.3 million people. Matić has expressed an interest in staying in China in the future with the possibility of getting involved in coaching. In January 2016, Matić transferred to fellow

side

Changchun Yatai Changchun Yatai Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Changchun, Jilin, that competes in . Changchun Yatai plays its home matches at the Changchun Stadium, located within Nanguan District. The club's founder and main ...

. He announced his retirement in February 2017. Matić became the director of International Division of Beijing Guoan on 5 April 2017.

Personal life

Matić is ethnic

Bosnian Croat The Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina (), often referred to as Bosnian Croats () or Herzegovinian Croats (), are native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and constitute the third most populous ethnic group, after Bosniaks and Serbs. They are also one of ...

. He is fluent in nine languages with those being Chinese,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, Croatian, English, French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Portuguese, and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

. He has proven his fluency in Chinese with his numerous post-game interviews.

Career statistics

Honours

Beijing Guoan *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

References

External links

* *
Player profile at sohu.com
(Chinese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Matic, Darko 1980 births Living people People from Posavina Canton Men's association football midfielders Bosnia and Herzegovina men's footballers 21st-century Bosnia and Herzegovina sportsmen FC Thun players HNK Orašje players FC Senec players Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players Beijing Guoan F.C. players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Swiss Challenge League players Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina players Slovak First Football League players Chinese Super League players Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Expatriate men's footballers in China Bosnia and Herzegovina expatriate sportspeople in China