Tomislav "Tomo" Šokota (born 8 April 1977) is a Croatian former

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 striker. Šokota was a powerful striker but his promising career was overshadowed by frequent injuries, especially in second half of the 2000s. Šokota gave his best performances during his first spell 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 ...

(1997–2001) and at Portuguese side Benfica (2001–2005). He was also a Croatia international, capped eight times during the team's Euro 2004 campaign.

Club career

Šokota joined

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

from rivals Benfica, where he played between 2001 and 2005. He previously played four seasons for Croatian First League side

, who signed him to his first professional contract from his youth club NK Samobor in 1997. While playing for Dinamo Zagreb, he became the top goalscorer of the Croatian First League in both 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons, scoring 21 and 20 goals respectively. He also made several appearances in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

with the club during their participations in the 1998 and 1999 group stages of the competition. Following his very successful 2000–01 season he was signed by

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side Benfica. During his time with the Lisbon side he played up front alongside Norwegian striker Azar Karadas for two seasons. By the end of 2004, and after refusing all Benfica's contract renewal proposals, Šokota was relegated to Benfica B, the club's reserve squad, where he eventually played for the rest of the 2004–05 season. On 25 January 2004, he played in a 1–0 away win against Vitória de Guimarães, a game overshadowed by the tragic death of his teammate Miklós Fehér. In June 2005, after his contract with Benfica finally expired, he joined rivals FC Porto on a free transfer. He has been plagued by injuries in his time in Portugal, having undergone four major surgeries. While at FC Porto, his first injury was at the beginning of the 2005–06 season, and he only returned to an official match on the last day of the Portuguese league. Soon, in the 2006–07 pre-season, he had another injury and as a result he played his first Superliga match against Estrela Amadora on 3 February 2007. Šokota returned to his hometown club Dinamo Zagreb in March 2007 in which he played until July 2009. In July 2009 Šokota moved to the Belgian League, signing a contract with

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

. Following a year with the Belgian side he moved to Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana for the 2010–11 season.

International career

Šokota debuted for the Croatia national team in their second-leg

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

qualifying play-off match versus

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

in November 2003 and also played all three matches at the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal before the Croatian team exited the competition in the group stage. Following

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, he was called up to be a part of the Croatian squad to play at the

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

but due to a very serious injury he had to miss the tournament. He won a total of eight caps and scored two goals for Croatia. His international goals came in friendlies against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

International goals

Honours

Club

;NK Samobor * Croatian Second League: 1995–96 (West) ;Dinamo Zagreb * Croatian First League (5): 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2007–08, 2008–09 * Croatian Cup (4): 1997–98, 2000–01, 2007–08, 2008–09 ;Benfica *

: 2004–05 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 2003–04 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

: Runner-up

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

;Benfica B *

Terceira Divisão : The Terceira Divisão Portuguesa (in English: ''Portuguese Third Division'') was a football league in Portugal, situated at the fourth level of the Portuguese football league system. The Third Division was initially the third level of the Por ...

: 2004–05 ;Porto *

: 2005–06, 2006–07 *

: 2005–06 *

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 ...

Individual

* Croatian Football Hope of the Year: 1999 * Croatian First League Top scorer: 2000, 2001 *

Co-Top scorer: 2004

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sokota, Tomo 1977 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football forwards Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players NK Samobor players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players S.L. Benfica footballers S.L. Benfica B players FC Porto players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Primeira Liga players Belgian Pro League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia