Darío Cvitanich (; born 16 May 1984) is an Argentine retired 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 played as a striker.

Career

Banfield

Cvitanich started his career in

Club Atlético Banfield Club Atlético Banfield is an Argentine sports club based in the Banfield, Buenos Aires, Banfield city of Greater Buenos Aires. It was founded on 21 January 1896, by the British–origin inhabitants of that city (mostly English people, English, ...

's youth and made his debut for the club's first team at the age of 19 on 20 October 2003 in a 3–1 defeat to

Olimpo de Bahía Blanca Club Olimpo, usually referred to as Olimpo de Bahía Blanca, is an Argentine sports club based in the city of Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province. The club was founded October 15th, 1910. Its primary activity is soccer. The club is recognized in ...

. He scored a

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 Wick ...

in a 4–0 win against

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

on 27 April 2007. He played, and scored, for Banfield in the

Copa Libertadores 2007 The 2007 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2007 Copa Toyota Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 48th edition of the Copa Libertadores. It started on January 24, 2007, and finished on June 20, 2007. It was won by ...

. He also served as a loyal member of Banfield during his early youth years in Argentina. Just prior to leaving his childhood side, he excelled his final loyalty by scoring 13 times during Banfield's run at the Clausura 2008 tournament.

Ajax

Cvitanich signed for

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, although he did not leave Banfield until the end of the 2008 season. He was labelled the successor to

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Dirk Jan Klaas Huntelaar (born 12 August 1983), known professionally as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (), is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Huntelaar played for PSV Ein ...

and scored his first goal against

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

on 12 December 2008. Following the match against NAC, Cvitanich scored his first brace and his first hat-trick in subsequent weeks against

De Graafschap Vereniging Betaald Voetbal De Graafschap, simply known as De Graafschap () is a professional association football club based in Doetinchem, Netherlands. The team competes in the , the second level of the Dutch football league system. Founded o ...

and

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

. He scored his first hat-trick of the 2009–10 season against NAC Breda.

Loan to Pachuca

Cvitanich joined Mexican side

Pachuca Pachuca (; ), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the east-central Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca Municipality, Pach ...

on a year's loan on 1 January 2010. He helped the Mexican side to win their fourth

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

title, and returned to

on 3 November 2010, helping the club win their 30th Dutch league title.

Loan to Boca Juniors

Cvitanich signed with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in July 2011, on a one-year loan deal. He scored his first goal for Boca on 28 August 2011, against San Lorenzo de Almagro. Cvitanich scored again in the last games of the tournament against Godoy Cruz, two goals against Banfield and one against All Boys. He won the 2011 Argentine Torneo Apertura with Boca Juniors, as well as help the team to place in the final of the

2012 Copa Libertadores The 2012 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2012 Copa Santander Libertadores for sponsorship reasons) was the 53rd edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, South America's premier international club football tournament organized ...

, where they faced

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

from Brazil. Cvitanich was also voted

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

player of the week, in the 10th week of the tournament in April.

OGC Nice

On 25 July 2012, Cvitanich joined French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

outfit

OGC Nice Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice (), commonly referred to as OGC Nice or simply Nice, is a French professional association football, football club based in Nice. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of Footb ...

on a three-year contract.

Return to Pachuca

On 5 January 2015, Cvitanich joined Mexican

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

club

. After having a second knee injury and as a consequence missed the rest of the tournament, Pachuca agreed to release him from the team and hired Franco Jara as his replacement.

Career statistics

International career

Cvitanich was born in Argentina with distant Croatian heritage. He established himself as a quality footballer in his home country playing for Banfield in the Argentine Primera División. After much consideration he eventually pledged to play for the Croatia national team, stating that "such an opportunity only comes once and you must take it." It became known on 14 January 2009 that he could not play for

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 ...

, because the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

rules do not allow nationality to be taken from great-grandparents. In the case of the striker, only one of his great-grandparents was being born at the Croatian territories and later emigrated to Argentina. Neither that nor his typical surname from Croatia will be able to help him against FIFA. Cvitanich obtained the Croatian passport back in 2008, but that's not a sufficient argument for the FIFA.

Personal life

Cvitanich obtained a Croatian passport in August 2008. He has dual citizenship, holding both Argentine and Croatian passports. The surname Cvitanić has his origin on the island of

Brač Brač is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide.CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

: 2009–10 Ajax *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Boca Juniors * Primera División: 2011 Apertura *

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Racing Club * Primera División: 2018–19 Individual *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

top scorer: 2008 Clausura

References

External links

* * at Futbol XXI
Israel article
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cvitanich, Dario 1984 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine people of Croatian descent Men's association football forwards People from Baradero Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Club Atlético Banfield footballers AFC Ajax players C.F. Pachuca players OGC Nice players Miami FC players Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Argentine Primera División players Eredivisie players Liga MX players Ligue 1 players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Argentine expatriate sportspeople in France Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States CONCACAF Champions Cup–winning players 21st-century Argentine sportsmen