Josip Pivarić (; born 30 January 1989) 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 lea ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

Club career

Dinamo Zagreb

Pivarić joined the Dinamo Zagreb youth academy at a young age. He was promoted to the first team during the spring of 2008. He went out on loan to Dinamo feeder club

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 ...

that same year, making 13 appearances in his first season with the ''Lokosi''. In January 2009, he signed a seven-and-a-half-year contract with Dinamo Zagreb, spending until the end of the 2011–12 season on loan at Lokomotiva. In January 2012, Pivarić rejoined the senior squad at Dinamo. He made his senior debut for Dinamo on 25 February 2012, in a 0–3 win over

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...

. His first goal for the ''Modri'' came in a 1–1 draw with

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

on 21 April 2012. Pivarić scored a historic goal for Dinamo in September 2015, the opening goal in a famous 2–1 victory over

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League. In a friendly match against Norwegian side Strømsgodset in January 2016, Pivarić sustained extensive ligament damage to his knee, forcing him out for the remainder of the 2015–16 season and missing out on probable

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 ...

national team selection. Pivarić made his return on 6 July 2016, in a 1–0 pre-season friendly victory over

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Dynamo Kyiv

On 8 August 2017, Pivarić signed a three-year contract with Ukrainian club

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

Lokomotiva Zagreb

On 1 October 2020, Pivarić returned club

as a free transfer.

Retirement

On 1 July 2023, Pivarić announced his retirement from football aged 34.

International career

Pivarić made his international debut for the

Croatia national football team The Croatia national football team () represents Croatia in men's international Association football, football matches. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), the governing body for football in Croatia. It is a member of UEF ...

on 14 August 2013, in a 3–2 win over

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

. In May 2018 he was named in Croatia's preliminary 32 man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

for the 2018 World Cup in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Throughout the tournament Ivan Strinić, Croatia's first choice left back, was battling injuries mostly due to his team playing three consecutive

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

matches to get to the final. This allowed Pivarić a great deal of playtime in Croatia's run to the 2018 World Cup Final. He earned a total of 26 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was an October 2018 friendly against

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb * HNL: 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014-15, 2015-16 * Croatian Cup: 2011-12, 2014-15, 2015-16 * Croatian Super Cup:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Dynamo Kyiv *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 2019-20 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 ...

runner-up:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Orders *

Order of Duke Branimir: 2018

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pivaric, Josip 1989 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football fullbacks Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers 2018 FIFA World Cup players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Lokomotiva Zagreb players FC Dynamo Kyiv players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Ukrainian Premier League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine