Igor Cvitanović (; born 1 November 1970) is a Croatian former 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 ...

who played as a striker. He is currently the head coach of Dinamo Zagreb II in the

Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga ( en, First football league), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Yugoslav Secon ...

. He is currently the 2nd all-time goalscorer of the Croatian First League (behind

Davor Vugrinec Davor Vugrinec (born 24 March 1975) is a Croatian former professional footballer. He primarily played as a striker, but also operated as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. He is all-time top scorer of the Croatian First Football Leag ...

) with a total of 126 goals, and also scored 122 domestic league goals for

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n club

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinam ...

, 117 of which were in the Croatian First League. He also played for the Croatia national team.

Club career

Born in

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 ...

, Cvitanović started his professional career at Dinamo Zagreb in 1989, appearing in 10

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League (Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

matches and scoring five goals for the club in the league during his first professional season. He was subsequently loaned to NK Varteks during the inaugural season of the Croatian First League in the spring of 1992, making 21 appearances and scoring nine goals in the league before returning to Dinamo Zagreb the following summer. Between 1992 and 1997, Cvitanović spent five and a half seasons playing for Dinamo Zagreb and became the top goalscorer of the Croatian First League in two consecutive seasons, scoring 19 goals in 1995-96 and 20 goals in 1996-97. In 1995, he had agreed terms with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, but the £1million transfer fell through on 2 December 1995 after the

Department of Employment The Secretary of State for Employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995 it was merged with Secretary of State for Education to make the Secretary of State for Education and Employment. In 2001 the employment functions w ...

refuse to issue him with a work permit. He also scored 27 league goals in the 1993-94 season, but was at the time overtaken in the goalscoring charts by his then teammate

Goran Vlaović Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Nova Gradiška, Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to HAŠK Građanski in 1992, before goin ...

, who scored 29 league goals that season. Cvitanović also scored nine goals in 14 league matches in the autumn of 1997, before moving abroad to Spanish side

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

at the beginning of the year 1998. He scored a total of 104 goals in domestic league competitions for Dinamo Zagreb before leaving the club, becoming their most successful goalscorer of all time. He failed to find much success with the Spanish side, scoring only three goals in 29

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

appearances before returning to Dinamo Zagreb in 1999. In 2002, he left Dinamo Zagreb to spend a season with Japanese side

Shimizu S-Pulse is a professional Japanese football club. Located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, S-Pulse currently competes in the J2 League (J2). The club was formed in 1991 as a founding member of the J.League (''"Original Ten"''), which bega ...

and then returned to Croatia to spend one more season with

in 2003-04, before retiring from playing.

International career

Cvitanović made his international debut for the Croatia national team on 22 October 1992 in a friendly match against

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Sl ...

. On 17 August 1994, he netted a brace for Croatia in a friendly match against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

to score his first international goals. Cvitanović was also part of the Croatian squad at the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

finals in England, where he did not play any matches. In the qualifying stages for the tournament, he only made one appearance as a stoppage-time substitute. He went on to make six appearances in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for th ...

, but was dismissed from the team's training camp a few weeks before the beginning of the finals due to differences of opinion between him and coach

Miroslav Blažević Miroslav "Ćiro" Blažević (; born 10 February 1935) is a Croatian former professional football manager and player. His professional playing career spanned from 1954 to 1966, during which he played for Dinamo Zagreb, Lokomotiva Zagreb, FK Saraj ...

. He briefly returned to the team in the spring of 1999, making a further six appearances in friendlies, with his last international match being against

Korea Republic South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...

on 19 June 1999 at the Korea Cup in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

. He scored his last international goal in Croatia's first match at the same tournament, against

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

on 13 June 1999. He finished his international career with 27 caps and four goals.

Career statistics

International

International goals

Managerial career

Cvitanović was appointed assistant to manager

Branko Ivanković Branko Ivanković (; born 28 February 1954) is a Croatian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and the current manager of the Oman national team. After a 12-year playing career at Varteks, Ivanković started his coaching career at the ...

at Dinamo Zagreb in 2013. He was confirmed as manager of Istra 1961 in March 2019, suddenly leaving Dubrava for the club in Pula. He returned to Dinamo in April 2021, taking charge of the reserves, succeeding

Ivan Prelec Ivan Prelec (born 24 July 1987) is a Croatian professional football manager who is the manager of Danish Superliga club Vejle. Managerial career He started as a manager in 2006, with only 19 years. He led the youth team of Dinamo Zagreb in 2014 ...

.Igor Cvitanović novi je trener Dinama II
- Sportnews

Managerial statistics

Honours

;Club *

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva H ...

(4): 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–2000 * Croatian Cup (3): 1994, 1996, 1997 ;Individual *Prva HNL top scorer (2): 1995–96 (19), 1996–97 (20) *SD Prva HNL Player of the Year (3): 1992, 1996, 1997 *SN Yellow Shirt Award (2): 1996, 1997

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cvitanovic, Igor 1970 births Living people Footballers from Osijek Men's association football forwards Yugoslav men's footballers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players Real Sociedad footballers Shimizu S-Pulse players NK Osijek players Yugoslav First League players Croatian Football League players La Liga players J1 League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Croatian football managers NK Istra 1961 managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb non-playing staff