Igor Cvitanović
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Igor Cvitanović (; born 1 November 1970) 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 striker. He is currently the head coach of Dinamo Zagreb II in the
Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga (), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Yugoslav Second League. The 1. NL is ope ...
. He is currently the 2nd all-time goalscorer of the
Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...
(behind
Davor Vugrinec Davor Vugrinec (born 24 March 1975) is a Croatian former professional footballer. He primarily played as a striker, but also operated as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. He is all-time top scorer of the Croatian First Football League ...
) with a total of 126 goals, and also scored 122 domestic league goals 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 ...
n club
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 ...
, 117 of which were in the Croatian First League. He also played for the Croatia national team.


Club career

Born in
Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...
, Cvitanović started his professional career at Dinamo Zagreb in 1989, appearing in 10
Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First League ( Bosnian: Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Прва савезна лига у фудбалу, Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, , , , , ) was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ...
matches and scoring five goals for the club in the league during his first professional season. He was subsequently loaned to NK Varteks during the inaugural season of the Croatian First League in the spring of 1992, making 21 appearances and scoring nine goals in the league before returning to Dinamo Zagreb the following summer. Between 1992 and 1997, Cvitanović spent five and a half seasons playing for Dinamo Zagreb and became the top goalscorer of the Croatian First League in two consecutive seasons, scoring 19 goals in 1995-96 and 20 goals in 1996-97. In 1995, he had agreed terms with
Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...
in the
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
, but the £1million transfer fell through on 2 December 1995 after the
Department of Employment The secretary of state for employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In , it was merged with secretary of state for education to make the secretary of state for education and employment. In , the employment functions were h ...
refuse to issue him with a
work permit A work permit or work visa is the permission to take a job within a foreign country. The foreign country where someone seeks to obtain a work permit for is also known as the "country of work", as opposed to the "country of origin" where someone ho ...
. He also scored 27 league goals in the 1993-94 season, but was at the time overtaken in the goalscoring charts by his then teammate
Goran Vlaović Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Nova Gradiška, Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to HAŠK Građanski in 1992, before goin ...
, who scored 29 league goals that season. Cvitanović also scored nine goals in 14 league matches in the autumn of 1997, before moving abroad to Spanish side
Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...
at the beginning of the year 1998. He scored a total of 104 goals in domestic league competitions for Dinamo Zagreb before leaving the club, becoming their most successful goalscorer of all time. He failed to find much success with the Spanish side, scoring only three goals in 29
La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...
appearances before returning to Dinamo Zagreb in 1999. In 2002, he left Dinamo Zagreb to spend a season with Japanese side
Shimizu S-Pulse is a Japanese professional association football, football club located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. S-Pulse is going to compete in the J1 League for the 2025 Season, after winning promotio ...
and then returned to Croatia to spend one more season with
Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...
in 2003-04, before retiring from playing.


International career

Cvitanović made his international debut for the Croatia national team on 22 October 1992 in a friendly match against
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
in
Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
. On 17 August 1994, he netted a brace for Croatia 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 ...
in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
to score his first international goals. Cvitanović was also part of the Croatian squad at the
UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...
finals in England, where he did not play any matches. In the qualifying stages for the tournament, he only made one appearance as a stoppage-time substitute. He went on to make six appearances in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the
1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...
, but was dismissed from the team's training camp a few weeks before the beginning of the finals due to differences of opinion between him and coach
Miroslav Blažević Miroslav "Ćiro" Blažević (; 9 February 1935 – 8 February 2023) was a Bosnian-Croatian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and Football player, player. A former right winger, his professional ...
. He briefly returned to the team in the spring of 1999, making a further six appearances in friendlies, with his last international match being against Korea Republic on 19 June 1999 at the Korea Cup in
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
. He scored his last international goal in Croatia's first match at the same tournament, against
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
on 13 June 1999. He finished his international career with 27 caps and four goals.


Managerial career

Cvitanović was appointed assistant to manager
Branko Ivanković Branko Ivanković (; born 28 February 1954) is a Croatian association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the head coach of the China national football team ...
at Dinamo Zagreb in 2013. He was confirmed as manager of Istra 1961 in March 2019, suddenly leaving Dubrava for the club in Pula. He returned to Dinamo in April 2021, taking charge of the reserves, succeeding
Ivan Prelec Ivan Prelec (born 24 July 1987) is a Croatian professional football manager. Managerial career He started as a manager in 2006, with only 19 years. He led the youth team of Dinamo Zagreb in 2014, while later he became the manager of the U17 tea ...
.


Career statistics

National Football Teams
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Managerial statistics


Honours

;Club *
Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...
(4): 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–2000 *
Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup *Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup The Croatian Water Polo C ...
(3): 1994, 1996, 1997 ;Individual *Prva HNL top scorer (2): 1995–96 (19), 1996–97 (20) *SD Prva HNL Player of the Year (3): 1992, 1996, 1997 *SN Yellow Shirt Award (2): 1996, 1997


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cvitanovic, Igor 1970 births Living people Footballers from Osijek Men's association football forwards Yugoslav men's footballers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players Real Sociedad footballers Shimizu S-Pulse players NK Osijek players Yugoslav First League players Croatian Football League players La Liga players J1 League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Croatian football managers NK Istra 1961 managers GNK Dinamo Zagreb non-playing staff