Saša Bjelanović (; born 11 June 1979) 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 forward. He has held an Italian passport since 2007, as his grandmother was from

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Venezia Giulia The Julian March ( Croatian and ), also called Julian Venetia (; ; ; ), is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia.

; this made him eligible to acquire Italian nationality at birth.

Club career

Saša Bjelanović started his career at

Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...

. At the age of 20, he had already made 76 appearances for his native club. In summer 1999, he was signed by Croatian giant

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 ...

. However, he made only one appearance before being transferred to NK Istra from

Pula Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, west Croatia, and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria, Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, wi ...

and then NK Varteks. On 31 May 2002,

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, at that time in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, brought Bjelanović to Italy. He played 15 Serie A games for Como, and left on loan to Chievo. As Como was relegated in summer 2003, on 16 July 2003, Bjelanović was loaned to

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

. But on 30 August 2003, he was sold to

Genoa C.F.C. Genoa Cricket and Football Club () is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in Genoa, Liguria. The team competes in the Serie A, the top division of the Italian football league system. Established in 1893, Genoa is ...

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

on a co-ownership deal for €1 million. Genoa was owned by former Como owner

Enrico Preziosi Enrico Preziosi is an Italian entrepreneur. He runs a number of businesses and is most famous for having been the chairman () of football club Genoa C.F.C., Genoa. Toys Preziosi is the chairman () of the board of directors of Giochi Preziosi (co ...

. Bjelanović played 41 out of possible 46 games for Genoa, and as Como was relegated again, this time to

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

, Genoa bought all the registration rights at the end of the season for another €150,000. Genoa did not win promotion in summer 2004 and Bjelanović played his second Serie A season for US Lecce on loan. In summer 2005, Genoa finally won promotion to Serie A, but due to match fixing scandal, Genoa was relegated to play in the Serie C1 next season. As a result, Bjelanović was sold to Ascoli, the team which was promoted in Genoa's place, on a co-ownership deal. Bjelanović scored four goals in 31 Serie A appearances for Ascoli in the 2005–06 season. He then went on to score seven goals in the 2006–07 season and became the top scorer for Ascoli for the season. This is due to players leaving the club and Ascoli relegated to Serie B after finishing at 19th. Bjelanović signed for his 6th Italian club,

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, along with Paolo Zanetti, on 21 June 2007, on a co-ownership deal. In June 2008 Torino full contracted with Bjelanović. In August 2008, Bjelanović was transferred to

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. On 1 July 2009, he joined Vicenza definitely in 3-year contract for €700,000 as part of Nicolás Gorobsov's deal (for €800,000).Vicenza Calcio SpA Report and Accounts on 30 June 2010
CCIAA
/ref> In June 2010 he was transferred to

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

champions

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

for €250,000.. He played only six months in Romania, in January 2011 being sold back in Italy, to Serie B club

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 ...

for €385,000.Atalanta BC Report and Accounts on 31 December 2011
CCIAA
/ref> However he was transferred to Serie B club Hellas Verona F.C. for free from the 2011 Serie B champion on 31 August 2011, the last day of Italian transfer window, after a nil game in

2011–12 Serie A The 2011–12 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM after its headline sponsors) was the 110th season of top-tier Italian football, the 80th in a round-robin tournament, and the second since its organization under a league committee separate from S ...

. At Verona he re-joined the former Cluj coach, Italian

Andrea Mandorlini Andrea Mandorlini (born 17 July 1960) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Playing career Mandorlini made his playing debut on 4 February 1979 with Torino. He left Torino in 1980 to join then-Serie B team Atalanta. Aft ...

. On 3 September 2012, the last day of Romanian transfer window, he returned to Cluj for undisclosed fee. He then joined

Lega Pro The Lega Italiano Calcio Professionistico (Italian for Professional Football Italian League), commonly known as Lega Pro (Pro League), is the governing body that runs the third tier of professional football competitions in Italy, the Serie C. I ...

club

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

for the 2014–15 season, but left the club in December 2014 by mutual consent, successively signing for

Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian language, Venetian and ) is a city and (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the capital of the Province of Pordenone, Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone. The name comes from Lati ...

, another Lega Pro club, five days later.

International career

Bjelanović was a member of the Croatian Youth team at the

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams tha ...

, where he made only one appearance and scored one goal. He made his debut for the Croatian senior national team on 9 February 2005, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Eduardo da Silva Eduardo Alves da Silva (, ; born 25 February 1983), known as simply Eduardo or Dudu, is a former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for multiple clubs and the Croatia n ...

in a friendly match against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, which ended in a 3–3 draw. In late March 2005, he was also part of the Croatian squad that played

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

in the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

qualifying, but remained an unused substitute in both matches.

Post career

On 25 May 2018 Bjelanović was confirmed as the Director of Football at

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

. Bjelanović was dismissed from the position of sports director of Hajduk after only eighteen months, without having spent a full season at the club. In June 2022, Bjelanović was appointed Director of Football Operations in

NK Istra 1961 Nogometni klub Istra 1961 (), commonly referred to as Istra 1961, is a Croatian professional football club based in Pula, that competes in the Croatian First League. It is a common opinion amongst many people that ''Istra 1961'' was founded i ...

where, after just one season, he achieved historic success and fifth place in the Croatian Football League 2022–23, where they fought until the very end for the first ever appearance in any of the European competitions.

Honours

Perugia *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

CFR Cluj *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Atalanta *

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 ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bjelanovic, Sasa 1979 births Living people Footballers from Zadar Croatian people of Italian descent Men's association football forwards Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Zadar players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Istra players NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players Como 1907 players AC ChievoVerona players AC Perugia Calcio players Genoa CFC players US Lecce players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Torino FC players LR Vicenza players CFR Cluj players Atalanta BC players Hellas Verona FC players SSD Varese Calcio players ACR Messina players Nuovo Pordenone 2024 FC ASD players Croatian Football League players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Liga I players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Romania HNK Hajduk Split non-playing staff