Boško Balaban

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Boško Balaban (born October 15, 1978 in Rijeka) is a Croatian footballer who plays as a striker for Dinamo Zagreb. Balaban is currently a member of the Croatia national team.

[edit] Biography

Born in Rijeka, he started to play for local club NK Rijeka and appeared in 97 matches between 1995 and 2000, scoring a total of 21 goals. During the 1999–2000 season, he was the top scorer of his team with 15 goals and attracted the attention of another Croatian club, Dinamo Zagreb. Playing for Dinamo, Balaban kept up his goalscoring form and once again became the league's top scorer with 14 goals in 25 games. Two games into the following season, he was signed by Aston Villa for a fee of £5.8 million, earning a £20,000-a-week contract.

Balaban failed to find any form for the English club, making just nine appearances, seven as a substitute. He was loaned back to Dinamo Zagreb for the 2002–03 season, scoring 15 times in 24 appearances. In December 2003, Aston Villa released Balaban from his contract and he signed for FC Bruges on a free transfer. In the 2004–05 season he scored 11 goals in 24 appearances for the club; in the 2005–06 season, he scored 13 goals in 30 games for Bruges.

Balaban has been a regular squad member of the Croatian national team since 2000, but in recent years he rarely appears in the starting line-up and plays mostly as a second-half substitute. Up to this time, he won 35 international caps and scored ten goals for the team. Balaban made his debut for Croatia in a friendly match against Slovakia on August 16, 2000 after being a regular member of the Croatian under-21 team for more than one year. His debut was really successful as he also managed to score his first goal for the Croatian A-team in this match that ended with a 1–1 draw. He excelled in the Croatian team's qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup as he appeared in all eight matches and scored five goals, including a hat-trick against Latvia in Croatia's 4–1 victory on March 24, 2001. He was also in the Croatian squad at the final 2002 World Cup tournament, but spent all three group matches on the bench. He subsequently did not appear in any matches for Croatia between February 2003 and August 2004, and also missed the Euro 2004 finals without making a single appearance in the qualifying for this tournament. He made his competitive comeback against Bulgaria on October 9, 2004 in the Croatian team's qualifying campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and subsequently appeared in another four qualifying matches, scoring a brace against Iceland on September 3, 2005. He was also a squad member at the 2006 World Cup finals, but once again spent all three group matches on the bench.

In early September 2006, Croatian national team's coach Slaven Bilić dropped Balaban, along with teammates Ivica Olić and Dario Srna, from the squad for their opening Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia because of a late-night partying in a Zagreb disco. However, Balaban was the only of the three players to return to the squad for the very next qualifier against Andorra one month later, which was won 7–0 by Croatia. In the match, Balaban came on as a substitute after one hour of playing and with Croatia 5–0 up, subsequently scoring the fastest-ever goal by a single player for the Croatian national team, spending some 20 seconds on the pitch before being on target.

In August 2007, he went back to Dinamo after Bruges had bought the top scorer François Sterchele. Balaban stated he would miss Bruges very much and he had a wonderful time at the club. He earned the nickname amongst Bruges fans of "Super Bosko", due to him scoring four times in one match and scoring at an average of 0.5 goals per match.

[edit] International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	16 August 2000	Tehelné pole, Bratislava, Slovakia	Slovakia	0 – 1	1 – 1	Friendly
02.	24 March 2001	Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia	Latvia	1 – 0	4 – 1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
03.	24 March 2001	Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia	Latvia	2 – 0	4 – 1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
04.	24 March 2001	Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia	Latvia	3 – 0	4 – 1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
05.	2 June 2001	Stadion Varteks, Varaždin, Croatia	San Marino	2 – 0	4 – 0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
06.	6 June 2001	Skonto Stadions, Riga, Latvia	Latvia	0 – 1	0 – 1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
07.	3 September 2005	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavik, Iceland	Iceland	1 – 1	1 – 3	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
08.	3 September 2005	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavik, Iceland	Iceland	1 – 2	1 – 3	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
09.	23 May 2006	Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria	Austria	1 – 4	1 – 4	Friendly
10.	7 October 2007	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Andorra	6 – 0	7 – 0	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

[edit] External links

• Bosko Balaban career stats at Soccerbase
• Boško Balaban's profile at the official FIFA World Cup website
• Croatian trio expelled from squad (English)

v • d • e Croatia squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Pletikosa • 2 Šerić • 3 Šimunić • 4 Tomas • 5 Rapaić • 6 Živković • 7 Vugrinec • 8 Prosinečki • 9 Šuker • 10 Niko Kovač • 11 Bokšić • 12 Butina • 13 Stanić • 14 Soldo • 15 Šarić • 16 Vranješ • 17 Jarni • 18 Olić • 19 Vlaović • 20 Šimić • 21 Robert Kovač • 22 Balaban • 23 Vasilj • Coach: Jozić

v • d • e Croatia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Pletikosa • 2 Srna • 3 Šimunić • 4 Robert Kovač • 5 Tudor • 6 Vranješ • 7 Šimić • 8 Babić • 9 Dado Pršo • 10 Niko Kovač • 11 Tokić • 12 Didulica • 13 Tomas • 14 Modrić • 15 I. Leko • 16 J. Leko • 17 Klasnić • 18 Olić • 19 N. Kranjčar • 20 Šerić • 21 Balaban • 22 Bošnjak • 23 Butina • Coach: Z. Kranjčar