Igor Budan (born 22 April 1980) 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 Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He also represented the

Croatia national football team The Croatia national football team () represents Croatia in men's international Association football, football matches. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), the governing body for football in Croatia. It is a member of UEF ...

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

. Since leaving hometown club

NK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka (), commonly referred to as HNK Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka competes in Croatia's top division, Supersport HNL, of which they have been members ...

, Budan spent most of the rest of his career playing for football clubs across Italy.

Club career

Early career

Budan played for his native

for two seasons before moving to Italy in 1999. At that time Serie A imposed non-EU quota per team that each team could be used in the field. Budan spent 2000–01 season with

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

as well as Swiss club

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , ; ; is a municipality, a List of towns in Switzerland, historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its Three Castles of Bellinzona, three castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sa ...

(in Italian speaking region of Switzerland) in order to free the quota for other players. Budan was one of the players transferred to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

from

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in 2002. The ex-owner of Venezia,

Maurizio Zamparini Maurizio Zamparini (9 June 1941 – 1 February 2022) was an Italian businessman. He was the owner and director of football club Palermo between July 2002 – February 2017 and from July 2017 – December 2018. Biography Zamparini had business ...

, had bought Palermo in July 2002.

Atalanta

He spent two very good seasons between 2003 and 2005 with

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 ...

, where he was a regular. Atalanta excised the option to sign Budan in June 2004 but Palermo also excised the counter-option, however, the loan later extended. Atalanta signed Budan in co-ownership deal in summer 2005 for €1 million. Along with

Adriano Adriano is the form of the Latin given name ''Hadrianus'' commonly used in the Italian language; the form Adrião can be used in the Portuguese language while the form Adrian is used in the English language. Notable people with the name include: ...

, they were part of the deal of

Stephen Makinwa Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (born 26 July 1983) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Makinwa also played for the Nigeria national team. His name, Ayodele, means "''Joy has come home''". Club career Early career M ...

Parma

The co-ownership deal with Atalanta being terminated in June 2006 for €1 million, Budan was then loaned to

Parma F.C. Parma Calcio 1913 () is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian league system, following promotion from Serie B in the 2023–24 season. ''Parma Football Cl ...

with a co-ownership option (€1.25 million),US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2007 That season Palermo signed

Mark Bresciano Mark Bresciano ( ; ; born 11 February 1980) is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. Born in Melbourne, Bresciano played youth football for Bulleen Lions, before moving into the National Soccer League wi ...

(€2.5 million) and Fábio Simplício (€4.6 million); Budan and Maurizio Ciaramitaro were the possible alternative compensation other than cash in the deals to Parma. Parma excised the option in June 2007 and bought Davide Matteini (50% for €900,00) and Francesco Parravicini (€950,000 to Palermo and €950,000 to Fiorentina)US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2008 Budan scored a lesser goal in

2007–08 Serie A The 2007–08 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 106th season of top-tier Italian football, the 76th in a round-robin tournament. It started on 25 August 2007 and ended on 18 May 2008. Internazionale Milano succe ...

but with a better goal per game, Palermo bought back Budan for €4.5million from relegated Parma in June 2008. Budan also signed a new five-year contract.US Città di Palermo Report and Accounts on 30 June 2009

Return to Palermo

At Palermo, Budan opportunities to play were limited in the first season because of knee injuries and a surgery on his left knee. However, he was confirmed to the Palermo squad for the 2009–10 season, and he started the new season by coming on as a substitute in the first two league games, against Napoli and Fiorentina. In the third game of the 2009–10 season, Budan scored his first goal for Palermo, a late injury-time equalizer in a 1–1 home tie against

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

. His new season with Palermo was then later stopped by another serious knee injury that kept him out of action for the remained of the tournament. On 31 August 2010, he was loaned out to newly promoted Serie A club

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

until the end of the season. He returned to Palermo by the end of the season and remained in Sicily due to the club failing to find a team for him. Initially kept off the first team squad, he was subsequently re-included due to an injury crisis and featured in a number of league games under head coach

Devis Mangia Devis Mangia (; born 6 June 1974) is an Italian professional association football, football manager (association football), manager. Managerial career Early years Mangia started his coaching career at age 30, working alongside Sean Sogliano at ...

, and then gaining a starting lineup spot under new boss

Bortolo Mutti Bortolo Mutti (born 11 August 1954) is an Italian football manager and a former player, who was most recently manager of Livorno. His older brother Tiziano Mutti also played football professionally. To distinguish them, Tiziano was referred to ...

. His improved condition, together with the sale of Mauricio Pinilla to

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

, turned him into a starter and gave him the opportunity to play more continuously; he scored his first goal of the season on 22 January 2012, netting the 1–1 equalizer in a 5–3 home win against

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, that was followed by him scoring both goals in a 2–0 victory against

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

one week later. During 2011–12 season Budan also extended his contract with the club to 30 June 2015. In January 2013 he moved on loan to

. After his loan expired, Budan confirmed his retirement in June 2013.

International career

Budan was capped for the Croatian U-18 team at the 1998 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship (now U-19 event) and 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 ...

(now

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

). Budan also played in 1999 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship qualification. On 7 February 2007, Budan made his international debut for

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in a 2–1 friendly win against Norway, coming on as a 62nd-minute substitute for Boško Balaban. Budan was selected for Croatia's

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

campaign, where he came on as a substitute in the second half against Austria. This would be Budan's final cap for Croatia.

Post-playing career

After his retirement, Budan returned to Palermo with his family and successively confirmed he was about to join the ''rosanero'' staff as a team manager starting from the 2013–14 season, accepting an offer from president

who had already regularly stated this intention in the past. He left Palermo after one season to pursue a career as a

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

, accepting an offer to work as

Guido Angelozzi Guido is a given name. It has been a male first name in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as other places with migration from those. Regarding origins, there ...

's deputy at

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 ...

club

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

. In July 2015 he was promoted as director of football, but on 17 November 2015, he relinquished his role as director of football for personal reasons.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* *
Lega Serie A profile (data by Panini Digital)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budan, Igor 1980 births Living people Footballers from Rijeka Men's association football forwards Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players HNK Rijeka players Venezia FC players Empoli FC players AC Bellinzona players Palermo FC players AC Ancona players Atalanta BC players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Parma Calcio 1913 players AC Cesena players Croatian Football League players Serie A players Serie B players Swiss Challenge League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland 21st-century Croatian sportsmen