Igor Cvitanović facts for kids

Igor Cvitanović (born 1 November 1970) is a Croatian former professional footballer. He played as a striker, which means he was a player who focused on scoring goals.

Igor Cvitanović is known as the second-highest goalscorer in the Croatian First League's history, with 126 goals. He scored 122 goals for the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb in domestic leagues. Most of these, 117, were in the Croatian First League. He also played for the Croatia national team. Today, he is the head coach for Dinamo Zagreb II.

Club Career: Playing for Top Teams

Igor Cvitanović began his professional football journey with Dinamo Zagreb in 1989. In his very first season, he played 10 matches and scored five goals in the Yugoslav First League. This was a great start to his career.

In 1992, he was loaned to NK Varteks. During this time, he played 21 matches and scored nine goals. After this loan, he returned to Dinamo Zagreb.

Becoming a Top Scorer at Dinamo Zagreb

From 1992 to 1997, Cvitanović played for Dinamo Zagreb for five and a half seasons. He became a star player, leading the Croatian First League in goals for two years in a row. He scored 19 goals in the 1995-96 season and 20 goals in the 1996-97 season.

In 1995, he almost moved to Middlesbrough in the Premier League in England. However, the transfer did not happen because he could not get a work permit.

He also scored 27 league goals in the 1993-94 season. Even with so many goals, his teammate Goran Vlaović scored even more, with 29 goals that season. Before leaving Dinamo Zagreb in 1997, Cvitanović had scored 104 goals for the club in domestic league games. This made him their all-time top goalscorer.

Playing Abroad and Retirement

At the start of 1998, Igor Cvitanović moved to Spain to play for Real Sociedad. However, he did not find as much success there. He scored only three goals in 29 matches in La Liga, the top Spanish league.

He returned to Dinamo Zagreb in 1999. In 2002, he left Dinamo Zagreb again to play for Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan for one season. After that, he came back to Croatia and played one more season for Osijek in 2003-04. After this, he retired from playing professional football.

International Career: Representing Croatia

Igor Cvitanović first played for the Croatia national team on 22 October 1992. This was a friendly match against Mexico in Zagreb.

On 17 August 1994, he scored his first two goals for Croatia in a friendly match against Israel. He was also part of the Croatian team for the UEFA Euro 1996 tournament in England, but he did not play in any matches there.

He played in six matches during Croatia's qualifying games for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. However, he was removed from the team's training camp before the World Cup began. This was due to disagreements with the coach, Miroslav Blažević.

He briefly rejoined the team in 1999, playing in six more friendly matches. His last international game was against Korea Republic on 19 June 1999. He scored his last international goal on 13 June 1999, against Egypt. Overall, he played 27 matches for Croatia and scored four goals.

Managerial Career: Coaching Teams

After retiring as a player, Igor Cvitanović became a football coach. In 2013, he was an assistant manager at Dinamo Zagreb.

In March 2019, he became the manager of Istra 1961. He left his previous role at Dubrava to take this job. In April 2021, he returned to Dinamo Zagreb to coach their reserve team, Dinamo Zagreb II.

Honours

Igor Cvitanović achieved many successes during his playing career:

Club

• Prva HNL (Croatian First League) winner:
  • 1992–93
  • 1995–96
  • 1996–97
  • 1999–2000
• Croatian Cup winner:
  • 1994
  • 1996
  • 1997

Individual

• Prva HNL top scorer:
  • 1995–96 (19 goals)
  • 1996–97 (20 goals)
• SD Prva HNL Player of the Year (best player award):
  • 1992
  • 1996
  • 1997
• SN Yellow Shirt Award (another top player award):
  • 1996
  • 1997

See also

In Spanish: Igor Cvitanović para niños