Ognjen Vukojević (born 20 December 1983) is a Croatian

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and former professional

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. He is currently the manager of the Croatia national under-20 team, an assistant manager of

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

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 ...

, and a scout of the Croatia national team. Vukojević's playing career spanned 15 years across football clubs in Croatia, Belgium, Ukraine, Russia and Austria, as well as seven years with his national team, representing Croatia at two

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s and the

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Club career

Early career

Vukojević started to play football at Mladost Ždralovi and moved to NK Bjelovar before joining NK Varteks Varaždin in 1996, where he would play until 2002, when, after finishing his youth years, he was released by the club. After a season back at NK Bjelovar, Vukojević started his professional career at Slaven Belupo in 2003. He moved to Belgian side Lierse S.K. in 2005, but was not given a chance to prove his talent at the club and decided to return to Croatia in December 2005, signing with

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 ...

Dinamo Zagreb

Vukojević made his debut for Dinamo Zagreb in their 3–0 win at home to Međimurje on 4 March 2006. During the 2006–07 season, he established himself as a regular at the club and was often nicknamed "Dinamo's Gattuso" because of his style of play. In the autumn of 2006, Vukojević also made six European appearances for Dinamo Zagreb, appearing in all of their four

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qualifiers against Ekranas and

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as well as both of their matches against

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in the first round of the

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. He scored one goal in Dinamo's 5–2 win at home to Ekranas. In the first part of the 2007–08 season, Vukojević appeared in all of Dinamo Zagreb's 12 European matches that season, making six appearances in the UEFA Champions League qualifying and further six in the UEFA Cup. He scored one goal apiece in Dinamo's home matches against Domžale and

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in the UEFA Champions League qualifying as well as both of their goals in the UEFA Cup group stage, netting the equaliser in a 2–1 away defeat at Brann and the opening goal in a 1–1 away draw at

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. In 2007–08, he also had a successful season for Dinamo Zagreb in the

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, scoring 11 goals in 29 league appearances as the club won their third consecutive league title. During his time at Dinamo Zagreb, the club also won two consecutive

Croatian Football Cup The Croatian Football Cup (), is an annually held football tournament for Croatian football clubs and is the second most important competition in Croatian football after the HNL championship. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS ...

titles.

Dynamo Kyiv

On 26 May 2008, Vukojević signed a five-year contract with

. He made his

debut on 19 July 2008 in Dynamo Kyiv's 2–0 win at home to Illichivets and quickly established himself as a regular at the club. Vukojević also helped Dynamo Kyiv reaching the UEFA Champions League group stage, appearing in all of their four qualifiers against Drogheda United and Spartak Moscow. In his first match in the UEFA Champions League group stage, a 1–1 draw at home to Arsenal, he won a penalty after being fouled by Bacary Sagna, with Ismaël Bangoura scoring the opening goal of the match from the penalty. On 4 October 2008, Vukojević scored his first goal for Dynamo Kyiv, netting the opening goal in their 4–0 away win at

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in the Ukrainian Premier League. He went on to appear in all of Dynamo Kyiv's six UEFA Champions League group matches, helping the club to finish third in their group and continue their European campaign in the UEFA Cup. He continued to appear regularly in the competition and scored his first European goal for Dynamo Kyiv on 12 March 2009 in the first leg of their round of 16 tie against Metalist Kharkiv, netting the only goal in his team's 1–0 victory. He missed the second leg due to a yellow-card suspension as Dynamo won the tie on away goals and secured their place in the quarter-finals. During the quarter final second leg against Paris Saint Germain, he scored the final goal in a 3–0 win, helping the side to a 3–0 aggregate win.

Spartak Moscow

After losing his position in the starting line-up of Dynamo Kyiv, Vukojević was sent on a loan to Russian side Spartak Moscow until the end of the season 2012–13.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 11 August 2014, Vukojević joined

on a season-long loan.

International career

Vukojević was first called up to the Croatia national team in August 2007. He made his international debut on 16 October 2007 in Croatia's 3–0 win in a friendly match against

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, coming on as a half-time substitute and scoring his first international goal only two minutes into the second half to give Croatia a 2–0 lead. His competitive debut for Croatia came in their 2–0 away defeat at

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in the

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qualifiers, where he came off the bench to replace

Niko Kranjčar Niko Kranjčar (; born 13 August 1984) is a Croatian former professional Association football, footballer. He primarily played as an attacking midfielder, but could also operate as a Midfielder (association football)#Winger, winger or Forward (a ...

in the final 15 minutes of the game. Vukojević was also part of Croatia's squad at the UEFA Euro 2008 finals in

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and

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, where he appeared in two of the team's four matches. He came on as a late substitute for Ivica Olić in Croatia's opening match against

and played all 90 minutes in their final group match against

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. Croatia won both of these matches 1–0. He made his first appearance in the

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qualifiers in Croatia's goalless draw at

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on 11 October 2008 and also appeared in their 4–0 win at home to

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four days later, being in the starting line-up for both of these matches. On 27 June 2014, Vukojević announced his retirement from the Croatia national team. He earned a total of 55 caps, scoring 4 goals, and his final international was a May 2014

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against

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International goals

Managerial career

On 10 May 2019, Vukojević was named the manager of the Croatia national under-20 team.

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2014–15 *

: 2006–07, 2007–08, 2014–15 *

Croatian Football Super Cup The Croatian Football Super Cup is a football match between the winners of the Croatian national top league and football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a new football season, and is only held when different clubs win the t ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

Dynamo Kyiv *

: 2008–09 *

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 ...

: 2013–14 * Ukrainian Super Cup:

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 ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vukojevic, Ognjen 1983 births Living people Footballers from Bjelovar Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players 2014 FIFA World Cup players NK Bjelovar players NK Slaven Belupo players Lierse S.K. players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Spartak Moscow players FK Austria Wien players Second Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Belgian Pro League players Ukrainian Premier League players Russian Premier League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Russia FC Dynamo Kyiv non-playing staff