Nikola Moro (; born 12 March 1998) is a Croatian 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 plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for club

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and the Croatia national team.

Club career

Dinamo Zagreb

Aged six, he started football, moving to

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 ...

aged 11. A

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

fan in his early days in

Solin Solin is a town and a suburb of Split, in Split-Dalmatia county, Croatia. It is situated right northeast of Split, on the Adriatic Sea and the river Jadro. Solin developed on the location of ancient city of ''Salona'', which was the capital o ...

, Nikola's father Miro yearned for him to contemplate a career at the Hajduk academy, but he went to the Dinamo Zagreb academy instead. Nikola joined the senior

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 ...

team from the youth academy in 2014. Moro played a full 90 minutes in his

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debut for his senior team versus Lokomotiva in May 2016. He made his Champions League debut on 7 December, in a 2–0 away defeat to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. On 22 February 2017, he signed a new contract until 2022. On 27 March 2018, in an international match against Moldova U21, he suffered a severe injury after

tearing Tearing is the act of breaking apart a material by force, without the aid of a cutting tool. A tear in a piece of paper, fabric, or some other similar object may be the result of the intentional effort with one's bare hands, or be accidental. ...

his

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

. He came back to the team on 26 September for the

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 ...

game against Sloga Mravince. He made his

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

debut on 14 February 2019 in a 2–1 away defeat to

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victor ...

. On 6 November, in a decisive Champions League home game against

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

, he was

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in the 74th minute with Shakhtar scoring a late equalizer for 3–3 to deny Dinamo a direct qualification for the

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Dynamo Moscow

On 17 August 2020, he signed a five-year contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...

. He made his debut two days later in a 2–0 victory over

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

, coming on for Daniil Fomin in the 69th minute. On 18 October, he scored his first goal for the club as Dynamo lost 3–1 to

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

Bologna

On 29 August 2022, Moro joined

in Italy on loan until the end of the 2022–23 season, with an option to buy. On 2 July 2023, Bologna exercised their option and made the transfer permanent.

International career

Representing Croatia at U16, U17 and U19 level, Nikola Moro made the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the

2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the sixteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in Chile from 17 October to 8 November 2015. Host selection The following four countries bid to host the tournament: * * * * Venues Along with proposing ...

eventually losing to

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. He also represented Croatia U21 at the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and 2021 UEFA Under-21 Euros, captaining the team to the quarter-finals of the latter tournament for the first time in their history. On 17 May 2021, Moro was named in the preliminary 34-man squad for the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

, but did not make the final 26. He earned his first call-up to the senior Croatia team on 16 August 2021, ahead of the September World Cup qualifiers against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. However, he did not debut until 29 March 2022, when he made an appearance in a friendly 2–1 victory over

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

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 ...

: 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 *

: 2015–16, 2017–18 * Croatian Super Cup:

Bologna *

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

: 2024–25 Individual * 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament

References

External links

Profile
at the Bologna FC 1909 website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moro, Nikola 1998 births Living people People from Solin Footballers from Split-Dalmatia County Footballers from Split, Croatia Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers GNK Dinamo Zagreb II players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players FC Dynamo Moscow players Bologna FC 1909 players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Russian Premier League players Serie A players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy