Jozo Izaija Matovac (born 22 May 1970) is a Swedish 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 defender. He represented

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg (Hisingen). It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Forme ...

Örgryte IS Örgryte Idrottssällskap, commonly referred to as Örgryte IS, Örgryte () or (especially locally) ÖIS or Öis, is a Swedish sports club based in Gothenburg. It consists of four departments, namely bowling, football, athletics and wrestling. ...

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but curr ...

, and

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs Idrottsförening, commonly referred to as Helsingborgs IF, Helsingborg or (especially locally) HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan, following releg ...

during a career that spanned between 1992 and 2002. A full international between 1997 and 2001, he won nine

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the Sweden national team.

Club career

Matovac played youth football for

Gunnilse IS Gunnilse IS is a Sweden, Swedish Association football, football club located in Angered, a suburb of Gothenburg. Background Since their foundation on 16 September 1950 Gunnilse IS has participated mainly in the middle and lower divisions of the ...

before signing with

. In 1995 he signed with

where he was considered one of Allsvenskan's best centre backs. He signed with the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

club

in 1998, before returning to Swedish football in 2000 as a replacement at

for the departed Andreas Jakobsson. In 2000, Matovac helped the team qualify for the

2000–2001 UEFA Champions League 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 ...

in which he participated in all six

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

games. In 2002, he retired from professional football following a hip injury.

International career

Matovac made his full international debut for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 9 February 1997 in a

King's Cup King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King's Cup (Bahrain), the premier national knockout football tournament * King's ...

game against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in which he also scored his first international goal as Sweden won 2–0. He made his competitive international debut for Sweden in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, playing the full 90 minutes as centre back alongside

Patrik Andersson Patrik Jonas Andersson (; born 18 August 1971) is a Swedish former professional association football, footballer who played as a defender (association football), defender. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in the late 1980s, he went on to ...

as Sweden won 1–0. He won his ninth and final

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

, again playing alongside Patrik Andersson at centre back.

Personal life

Matovac was born in Sweden to Croatian parents.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Matovac goal''.

Honours

Aalborg BK *

: 1999–2000 Sweden *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

References

Living people 1970 births Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Helsingborgs IF players AaB Fodbold players Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Örgryte IS players BK Häcken players {{sweden-footy-defender-stub