Mislav Oršić (; born 29 December 1992) 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

left winger 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. ...

for

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

club

Pafos Paphos, also spelled as Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos. It is the fourth-largest cit ...

and the Croatia national team. Born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, Oršić started his senior career at Inter Zaprešić in 2009. Following short stints with

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

and

Celje Celje (, , ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. Th ...

throughout 2013 and 2014, he moved to South Korea. After a successful stint with

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan HD FC (), formerly Ulsan Hyundai FC, is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in 198 ...

, Oršić was bought in 2018 by Croatian giants and his local 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 ...

, whom he had supported since childhood. During almost five years at the club, Oršić established himself as a club legend, helping the club win four

Prva HNL 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 ...

titles, and reach the

quarter-finals 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 ...

of the

UEFA 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 ...

for the first time in its history, and becoming the club's all-time leading goalscorer in the

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. Th ...

in the process. In January 2023, Oršić moved to Southampton. Oršić made his debut for the Croatia national team in 2019. He represented his country at the

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 ...

and 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 ...

, winning the bronze medal at the latter tournament.

Club career

Early career in Croatia, Italy and Slovenia

Coming from the Srednjaci neighborhood of Zagreb, Oršić started practicing football at the age of 5, with

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 ...

, however, a few months later, the club dissolved its youngest categories. His next stop was the nearby

NK Trešnjevka Nogometni klub Trešnjevka is a professional association football club from the city of Zagreb that is situated in Croatia. Formed in 1926 under the name Panonija, since 1929 the clubs has been known as Trešnjevka. It was promoted to the Yugo ...

, where his father persuaded the club to let him train, despite not having categories that At the age of 13, Oršić moved to

NK Kustošija NK Kustošija is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. It was founded in 1929. As of the 2017–18 season, the club's senior team participates in the 2. HNL. Kustošija also have a football school attached to the club, where a ...

, before moving on to

NK Inter Zaprešić Nogometni klub Inter Zaprešić was a Croatian professional football club based in Zaprešić, a town northwest of the capital Zagreb. The team were nicknamed ''Keramičari'' (The ceramics makers), because they were sponsored by a ceramics fa ...

in 2008. Oršić started playing for Inter Zaprešić's first team in 2009. In the

2012–13 Prva HNL 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 ...

season he was the team's top goalscorer in with 12 goals. He moved to Spezia Calcio in the summer transfer window of 2013, and played 9 games for the club in the

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 Serie B, 2012–13 season, ...

without scoring. The club ended up 8th in the league. He returned to Croatia and joined

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 ...

for an unknown transfer fee, where he was subsequently loaned out to Slovenian club

from August to December of the 2014–15 season where he played 13 games and scored 2 goals, and then to South Korean club

Jeonnam Dragons The Jeonnam Dragons () are a South Korean professional football club based in the city of Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The Dragons play their home matches at the G ...

from February 2015 to January 2016 where he impressed with 9 goals from 33 games.

South Korean K League and Chinese Super League clubs

Jeonnam eventually signed him for €750,000 in the January transfer window of 2016. He did not play a single game for Rijeka. He registered his name as "Orša" (or in

Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...

, "Oreusya") with the

K League K League () is South Korea's professional football league. It includes the first division K League 1 and the second division K League 2. Clubs competing in the K League have won a record total of twelve AFC Champions League Elite, AFC Champions ...

, because South Korean players had difficulty pronouncing his name. Oršić spent another half a year at Jeonnam, where he played a further 16 games and scored 5 goals. He was sold to

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 ...

for €1.3 million, and he played for the remainder of 2016 in the

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 ...

, scoring twice in 14 games. He returned to the K League in January 2017, signing for

at the price of €935,000. He played for Ulsan for one and a half years, during which he won a

Korean FA Cup The Korea Cup (), formerly the Korean FA Cup, is a national Association football, football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the competition was established in 1996, two simil ...

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

, before returning to Croatia and signing for

in the 2018 summer transfer window.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 18 September 2019, Oršić scored a hat-trick for Dinamo Zagreb against

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 ...

in his

2019–20 UEFA Champions League The 2019–20 UEFA Champions League was the 65th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 28th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Bayern Munich ...

debut. On 18 March 2021, Oršić scored a hat-trick in a 3–0 win, of which the last goal came in

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 ...

, against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

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 ...

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 ...

, helping his team to win 3–2 on aggregate and reach the

for the first time in the history of the club. Furthermore, the hat-trick brought his European goal tally to 17, making him the highest scoring player in European competitions in the history of the club, surpassing club legends

Igor Cvitanović Igor Cvitanović (; born 1 November 1970) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the head coach of Dinamo Zagreb II in the Druga HNL. He is currently the 2nd all-time goalscorer of the Croatian F ...

and

Slaven Zambata Slaven Zambata (24 September 1940 – 29 October 2020) was a Croatian professional football player best known for his time at Dinamo Zagreb in the 1960s, for whom he appeared in 171 Yugoslav First League matches. He was also a Yugoslav internat ...

. On 9 December 2021, he scored the only goal in the 1–0 away victory over

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, sending Dinamo to the knockout round play-offs. On 6 September 2022, Oršić scored the first goal of the 2022–23 Champions League group stages in a famous 1–0 victory for Dinamo against Chelsea at the

Maksimir Maksimir () is one of the districts of Zagreb, Croatia, population 48,902 (2011 census). Maksimir stadium and Maksimir Park are located in it. It was named for Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac. The urban center of the Maksimir district is located a ...

. Following on from his goal against Chelsea, Oršić continued his fine form with another goal the following week against

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, away at the

San Siro San Siro is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 75,817, making it the largest stadium in Italy and one of the largest stadiums in Europe. It is the home stadium of the city's principal ...

. Dinamo would eventually lose the match 3–1. Despite the loss, with his goal, Oršić finally set his record for the highest scoring Dinamo player in European competitions in history, extending his European goal tally to 28.

Southampton

On 6 January 2023,

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

announced the signing of Oršić from Dinamo Zagreb on a two-and-a-half-year contract, for a reported fee of £8m. On 11 January, Oršić made his debut in a 2–0 quarter-final

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

victory against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, replacing Adam Armstrong in the 83rd minute. Later that month, on 21 January, Oršić made his only Premier League appearance in a 1–0 home defeat to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

after he replaced Armstrong in the 84th minute.

Trabzonspor

On 30 June 2023, Oršić joined

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

subject to international clearance, for a transfer fee of €4m including bonuses. A month later, he sustained a cruciate ligament tear during training which sidelined him for most of the 2023–24 season. On 21 December 2024, Oršić departed the club having had his contract terminated by mutual consent.

Pafos

On 22 January 2025, Oršić signed for

International career

Oršić made his international debut 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 ...

on 9 September 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifying match 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 ...

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

that ended as a 1–1 draw, coming on as a substitute for

Ante Rebić Ante Rebić (; born 21 September 1993) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Serie A club Lecce. Mainly a winger, he can be deployed at any forward position. Rebić began his senior career at RNK Split, and in 201 ...

in the 86th minute. On 17 May 2021, he was selected in

Zlatko Dalić Zlatko Dalić (; born 26 October 1966) is a Croatian people, Croatian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former Football player, player. He has been the manager of the Croatia national football ...

's 26-man squad for the

. At the tournament, he did not play a single minute until the

knockout phase 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 ...

, when he was substituted on for Rebić in the 67th minute while Croatia were 3–1 down against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

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 ...

. He scored his debut international goal and provided Mario Pašalić with an assist to make the score 3–3; however, Spain won 5–3 after

. Oršić was selected by Zlatko Dalić and named in Croatia's 26-man squad for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

on 9 November 2022. On 27 November, in the 4–1

victory over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, Oršić provided

Lovro Majer Lovro Majer (; born 17 January 1998) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club VfL Wolfsburg and the Croatia national team. Club career Early career Majer was born in Zagreb in 1998. His father Egon h ...

with an assist for Croatia's fourth goal. On 9 December, in the quarter-final 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 ...

, Oršić provided

Bruno Petković Bruno Petković (; born 16 September 1994) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a forward for the Croatia national team. At club level, he last played for HNL club Dinamo Zagreb. Early career Petković was born in Metković, Cro ...

with the assist for Croatia's extra time equaliser, taking the match to a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. Oršić would score his

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

in the shootout, the final Croatian spot-kick before

Marquinhos Marcos Aoás Corrêa (born 14 May 1994), better known as Marquinhos (), is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back and Captain (association football), captains both club Paris Saint-Germain FC, Par ...

' miss, which sent Croatia to the

semi-finals 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, ...

for the second consecutive World Cup. Oršić then scored the winning goal in the

third place play-off Many sports playoffs and knockout tournaments include a third place playoff, third place match, bronze medal game, or consolation game to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. This game is typically com ...

against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which ended 2–1.

Personal life

Oršić is married to Suzana Krajinović, with whom he has two sons. He has Suzana's name tattooed on his right arm and kisses it in dedication to her whenever he scores a goal.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first.''

Honours

Ulsan Hyundai *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Dinamo Zagreb *

: 2018–19, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22 *

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 ...

* 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 ...

Pafos *

: 2024–25 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:

Individual *

Squad of the Season:

* Football Oscar Team of the Year:

, 2021–22 * 24 Sata Croatian First League Team of the Year: 2020–21 *CIES Croatian First League Team of the Year: 2021–22 *

Sportske Novosti ''Sportske novosti'' () is a Croatian daily sports newspaper based in Zagreb. The newspaper was established on 9 August 1945 as ''Ilustrirane fiskulturne novine'' weekly newspaper. Several months later, on 10 December 1945, its name was change ...

Croatian First League Team of the Year: 2021–22 *

GNK Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional association football, football Football team, club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They ...

Goal of the Season 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orsic, Mislav 1992 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players NK Inter Zaprešić players Spezia Calcio players HNK Rijeka players NK Celje players Jeonnam Dragons players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Ulsan HD FC players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Southampton F.C. players Trabzonspor footballers Pafos FC players Croatian Football League players Serie B players Slovenian PrvaLiga players K League 1 players Chinese Super League players Premier League players Süper Lig players Cypriot First Division players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Croatian expatriate sportspeople in China Croatian expatriate sportspeople in England Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus NK Zagreb players NK Trešnjevka players NK Kustošija players