Zlatko Junuzović (, ; born 26 September 1987) is an Austrian 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, rugb ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. From 2006 to 2017 he represented the

Austria national football team The Austria national football team (german: Österreichische Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Austria in men's international Association football, football competition and it is controlled by the Austrian Football Association (German: Ös ...

. He was known as a free-kick specialist.

Early life

Junuzović moved with his parents to Austria when he was five years old. Before his 12th birthday, they went on to

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

, where he soon played for the youth teams of

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be on ...

Club career

Aged 17, Junuzović made his debut for Grazer AK in the

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 footb ...

in spring 2005. In 2006, he was called up to play for the ÖFB-Team and became a regular starter for Grazer AK. In summer 2007, Junuzović moved to

SK Austria Kärnten SK Austria Kärnten was an Austrian association football club, from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. History The club was formed on 1 June 2007 and took over the license of ASKÖ Pasching to play in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. SK Austria took ov ...

before joining

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

in summer 2009. In 2010, Junuzović was awarded two awards for his performances with Austria Wien and the national team: the managers of the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

voted him

Austrian Footballer of the Year The Austrian Footballer of the Year award (german: APA-Fußballerwahl) is an annual football award, established in Austria in 1984 and sponsored by the Austria Press Agency (APA). The coaches of all Austrian Football Bundesliga clubs vote to elect t ...

and the country's supporters voted him "Player of the Year" in the annual award awarded by the

Kronen Zeitung The ''Kronen Zeitung'' (), commonly known as the ''Krone'', is Austria's largest newspaper. It is known for being Eurosceptic. History The first issue of the ''Kronen Zeitung'' appeared on 2 January 1900. Gustav Davis, a former army officer, ...

. In January 2012, Junuzović joined

club

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

, signing a contract which lasteduntil 30 June 2015. In February 2015, it was announced that his contract had been extended until June 2018. Having completed the 2014–15 season with six goals and 15 assists, third in the Bundesliga behind

Kevin De Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne (born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Manchester City and the Belgium national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world. Pundits have often des ...

and

Thomas Müller Thomas Müller (; born 13 September 1989) is a German professional footballer who plays for club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. A versatile player, Müller has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking mi ...

, Junuzović was voted as "Player of the Season" by Werder's fans. On 18 March 2017, he scored his second goal of the 2016–17 season in a 3–0 win against

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, a match that saw all three of Werder Bremen's Austrian players score in the club's highest win of the season. In April 2018, Junuzović announced he would leave Werder Bremen after six and half years at the club. He wnt to FC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. In 2022, he ended his career and became assistance coach of

FC Liefering FC Liefering GmbH is an Austrian association football club, originally from Liefering, a section of Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, ...

Personal life

Junuzović was born in the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

n town of Loznica to a Bosnian family.

International career

Junuzović played for Austria at the

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the score ...

where they claimed fourth place. He made his debut for the senior team in a March 2006 friendly match against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. He represented the national team at the 2016 Euros. In October 2017, after the conclusion of the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup during which Austria failed to reach qualification, Junuzović announced his retirement from the national team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and goals list Austria's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Red Bull Salzburg *

Austrian Football Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. The ...

: 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 b ...

, 2021–22 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th ti ...

: 2018–19, 2019–20,

, 2021–22

Individual

: 2010 *Werder Bremen Supporters' Player of the Season: 2014–15

References

External links

*
Profile
at UEFA.com
Profile and Statistics
at Guardian's Stats Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Junuzovic, Zlatko 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Loznica Austrian footballers Austria youth international footballers Austria under-21 international footballers Austria international footballers Austrian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Austrian people of Serbian descent Austrian expatriate footballers Grazer AK players FC Kärnten players FK Austria Wien players SV Werder Bremen players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Expatriate footballers in Germany Naturalised citizens of Austria UEFA Euro 2016 players Association football midfielders