Antonio-Mirko Čolak (; born 17 September 1993) is a 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 ...

who plays as a forward for

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

club

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. Born in Germany, he represents the Croatia national team. Čolak began his senior career in the lower divisions of German football and has since gone on to play in the top flights of German, Polish, Croatian, Greek, Swedish and Scottish football. He was the top scorer in the 2019–20 Prva HNL season while playing for Croatian club

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top division, HT Prva lig ...

. He won the

2021 Allsvenskan The 2021 Allsvenskan was the 97th season since its establishment in 1924 of Sweden's top-level football league, Allsvenskan. A total of 16 teams participated. Malmö FF were the defending champions after winning the title in the previous season, ...

title while on loan at Swedish club

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

from Greek club PAOK. Čolak played more than 20 times for Croatia's youth national teams, before making his senior international debut for the country in November 2020, in a friendly against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Club career

Early career

The Čolak family immigrated to Germany in 1992 to avoid the war in the former Yugoslavia, where Antonio was born on 17 September 1993. Born in

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg district with about 88,000 inhabitants. It is s ...

, in 2000 he signed for

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. History In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südk ...

, where he remained for eight years before returning to Freiburg in 2008. From there he joined the youth academy at Hoffenheim in 2010 for just one year, and in 2011 moved to Karlsruhe, where he made his professional debut in the lower leagues. In 2012 he was signed by 1. FC Nürnberg, initially for the reserve team. Čolak made his debut on 19 October 2013 in a

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

game against

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

. He entered the field after 78 minutes for Tomáš Pekhart. He stayed in Nuremberg until 2015, playing in seven games, while for one season he was loaned out to Lechia Gdańsk, where he scored ten goals in 31 games, also contributing two assists.

Hoffenheim and loan spells

In the summer of 2015 he signed a contract with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, but he did not play with the club throughout his contract. Initially he joined

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

on a season-long loan. On 25 July 2016, Čolak joined

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

on a season-long loan. For the following season he was again sent out on loan, to

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side

FC Ingolstadt Fußball-Club Ingolstadt 2004 e.V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingols ...

Rijeka

Following the mutually agreed termination of the loan at Ingolstadt, in January 2018, Čolak was loaned to

in Croatia until June 2019. Following the end of the loan, on 22 June 2019 Čolak officially joined HNK Rijeka on a three-year contract. In the 2019–20 season, he was the top scorer in the Croatian championship with 20 goals, while with Rijeka he also won two Croatian Cups. His performances also saw him win a place in the

Croatia national football team The Croatia national football team ( hr, Hrvatska nogometna reprezentacija) represents Croatia in international football matches. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), the governing body for football in Croatia. It is a ...

PAOK and loan to Malmö

On 20 September 2020, PAOK agreed terms with Rijeka for the purchase of Čolak. The Greek club paid a fee over €3,000,000, while Čolak signed a four-year contract worth €450,000 per year. On 6 March 2021, Čolak moved to Swedish side

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association ...

, on a loan deal until December 2021. At Malmö FF, Čolak quickly established himself as a prolific goalscorer with ten goals in his first 15 appearances and went on to win the title with Malmö. In December 2021, with Malmö FF unwilling to pay the buy out of €3 million that had been set in his loan contract, Croatian newspaper "Sportske Novosti" linked Čolak with a move to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

. He returned to PAOK from the beginning of January 2022. On 20 March 2022, he scored a goal after an

Alexandru Mitriță Alexandru Ionuț Mitriță (; born 8 February 1995) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a winger for Saudi Professional League club Al-Raed, on loan from MLS club New York City FC, and the Romania natio ...

assist, helping PAOK to gain a 1–0 away win against rivals

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

for the

Play-off round The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. It was his first goal for the club after his return from Malmö FF.

Rangers

On 7 July 2022, Čolak joined his eleventh club Rangers, signing a three-year deal with the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

team. He made his debut for the club against

side Livingston, starting the match on 30 July. Čolak scored his first goal for Rangers in

match against Kilmarnock on 6 August then followed this by netting in the next two consecutive matches verse

Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s it has been based at the Jo ...

and St Johnstone. On 24 August, Čolak scored the winning goal in the Champions League play-off second leg against

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

to send Rangers to the group stage for the first time since 2010.

Parma

On 15 July 2023, Čolak left Rangers to join

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

side

for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £2.5 million.

International career

Čolak played youth international football for Croatia at under-18, under-19 and under-20 levels. On 27 August 2020 Croatia national team head coach

Zlatko Dalić Zlatko Dalić (; born 26 October 1966) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of the Croatia national team since 2017 and led them to a runners-up finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and third place at the ...

included Čolak in the list of players for the Nations League fixtures against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 5 September 2020 and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

on 8 September 2020. On 31 October 2022, Čolak was named in Croatia's preliminary 34-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but did not make the final 26.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rijeka * Croatian Cup: 2018–19, 2019–20 Malmö FF * Allsvenskan:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

PAOK *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

runner-up: 2021–22 Rangers *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

runner-up: 2022–23 Individual * Croatian First Football League Top goalscorer: 2019–20 (20 goals) * Croatian Cup Top goalscorer: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colak, Antonio 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Ludwigsburg Footballers from Stuttgart (region) German people of Croatian descent Men's association football forwards German men's footballers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers Karlsruher SC II players 1. FC Nürnberg II players 1. FC Nürnberg players Lechia Gdańsk players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players 1. FC Kaiserslautern II players SV Darmstadt 98 players FC Ingolstadt 04 players FC Ingolstadt 04 II players HNK Rijeka players PAOK FC players Malmö FF players Rangers F.C. players Parma Calcio 1913 players Regionalliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Ekstraklasa players Croatian Football League players Super League Greece players Allsvenskan players Scottish Professional Football League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden