Goran Vlaović

Goran Vlaović
Personal information
Date of birth (1972-08-07) 7 August 1972
Place of birth Nova Gradiška, SR Croatia,
SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1991 Osijek 24 (11)
1991–1994 Dinamo Zagreb 80 (59)
1994–1996 Padova 50 (18)
1996–2000 Valencia 73 (17)
2000–2004 Panathinaikos 64 (29)
Total 291 (134)
National team
1993 Croatia U21 2 (0)
2001 Croatia B 1 (1)
1992–2002 Croatia 52 (15)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Goran Vlaović (born 7 August 1972 in Nova Gradiška) is a former Croatian football striker.

Club career

Vlaović started his professional career with Osijek in 1989 and moved to Dinamo Zagreb in 1992, before going abroad to play for Calcio Padova in Italy, Valencia in Spain and Panathinaikos in Greece, where he retired in June 2004. His biggest personal success at club level came when he topped the goalscoring charts of the 1993-94 Croatian First League, netting 29 goals for Dinamo Zagreb that season. The record remained unbroken for 13 years before Eduardo da Silva scored 34 goals for the same club in 2006-07. He remains the youngest player to have scored the most goals in a single season in Croatia. He also won the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España with Valencia in 1999, as well as a Greek double with Panathinaikos in 2004.

International career

Vlaović was a member of the Croatian national football team for over ten years, between July 1992 and August 2002. He won a total of 52 international caps and scored 15 goals for the team (plus a single goal in his only appearance for Croatia B in a friendly against Romania in 2001).[1] As of November 2010, he is tied for the Croatian national team's fourth-best goalscorer of all time, behind Davor Šuker (45), Darijo Srna (19) and Eduardo da Silva (18).

Vlaović made his international debut for Croatia on 5 July 1992 in their friendly match against Australia in Melbourne, during the team's three-match tour through Australia. After the tour, Vlaović only made four international appearances in just over three and a half years, and having undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain in 1995,[2] he was only able to make one appearance in the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying. However, he started to play regularly for Croatia in early 1996. On 13 March 1996, he scored his first goals for the team in a friendly match against Korea Republic, netting a flawless hat-trick in Croatia's 3-0 victory.

He was subsequently added to the Croatian squad for the UEFA Euro 1996 finals in England, appearing in all of the team's four matches before they were knocked out by eventual champions, Germany, in the quarter-finals. In Croatia's first match at the tournament, against Turkey, he came off the bench to replace Alen Bokšić in the final 20 minutes and scored the only goal of the match in the 86th minute, thus becoming the first goalscorer for Croatia in a major international tournament.

Two years later, Vlaović was a member of the Croatian squad that surprisingly won the bronze medal at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals in France, their first FIFA World Cup appearance. He appeared in all of Croatia's seven matches at the tournament, although only making one appearance over the entire 90 minutes in the semi-finals against France. In the 80th minute of the quarter-finals against highly favoured Germany, he scored the second goal in Croatia's 3-0 victory, which all but secured the team's place in the semi-finals.

After a year and a half of absence from the national team, Vlaović made his international comeback in January 2001, making an appearance for Croatia B in a friendly match against Romania, also scoring one goal in the match. He went on to make four appearances and score one goal in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He was also added to Croatia's 23-man squad for the finals of that tournament, but was left an unused substitute in all three group matches as the team failed to qualify for the knock-out stages. He won his last international cap in a friendly match against Wales on 21 August 2002.

International goals

Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1–3 13 March 1996 Kranjčevićeva, Zagreb  South Korea
1 – 0
3 – 0
 Friendly
2 – 0
3 – 0
4 26 March 1996 Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin  Israel
2 − 0
2 − 0
 Friendly
5 11 June 1996 City Ground, Nottingham  Turkey
1 − 0
1 − 0
 Euro 1996
6 8 October 1996 Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna  Bosnia and Herzegovina
2 − 1
4 − 1
 World Cup 1998 Qualifying
7–8 11 December 1996 Mohamed V, Casablanca  Morocco
1 – 0
2 – 2
 1996 King Hassan II Trophy
2 – 0
9 8 June 1997 Olympic, Tokyo  Japan
3 – 4
3 – 4
 1997 Kirin Cup
10 29 October 1997 Maksimir, Zagreb  Ukraine
2 – 0
2 – 0
 World Cup 1998 Qualifying
11 29 May 1998 Aldo Drosina, Pula  Slovakia
1 – 1
1 – 2
 Friendly
12 4 July 1998 Gerland, Lyon  Germany
2 – 0
3 – 0
 World Cup 1998
13 10 March 1999 Spiridon Louis, Athens  Greece
1 – 2
2 – 3
 Friendly
14 25 April 2001 Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin  Greece
1 – 2
2 – 2
 Friendly
15 2 June 2001 Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin  San Marino
1 – 0
4 – 0
 World Cup 2002 Qualifying

Honours

Club

Dinamo Zagreb
Valencia
Panathinaikos

International

Croatia

Individual

Orders

References

  1. ↑ "Statistics - Caps: Goran Vlaović". Croatian Football Federation. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "Vlaovic finds his form".
  3. ↑ "ODLUKU KOJOM SE ODLIKUJU REDOM DANICE HRVATSKE S LIKOM FRANJE BUČARA" (in Croatian). hrvatska.poslovniforum.hr.
  4. ↑ "PREDSJEDNIK TUDJMAN ODLIKOVAO HRVATSKU NOGOMETNU REPREZENTACIJU" (in Croatian). hrt.hr.
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