Boško Balaban

Boško Balaban
Balaban playing for Dinamo Zagreb in 2008
Personal information
Full name Boško Balaban[1]
Date of birth (1978-10-15) 15 October 1978
Place of birth Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1995–2000 Rijeka 97 (21)
2000–2001 Dinamo Zagreb 27 (14)
2001–2003 Aston Villa 8 (0)
2002–2003 → Dinamo Zagreb (loan) 24 (15)
2003–2007 Club Brugge 83 (40)
2007–2009 Dinamo Zagreb 31 (17)
2009–2012 Panionios 50 (12)
2012 Selangor FA 20 (12)
Total 340 (131)
National team
1994 Croatia U-15 1 (0)
1995 Croatia U-16 1 (0)
1995 Croatia U-17 2 (0)
1996 Croatia U-18 1 (0)
1996–1997 Croatia U-19 4 (0)
1996–1997 Croatia U-20 1 (1)
1997–2000 Croatia U-20 17 (4)
2000–2007 Croatia 35 (10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:36, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

Boško Balaban (born 15 October 1978) is a retired Croatian footballer who last played for Selangor FA in the Malaysia Super League as a striker until 2013.

He is a former member of the Croatia national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Rijeka, he started playing for local club HNK 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.[2]

Aston Villa

Balaban failed to find any form for Aston Villa, making just nine appearances, seven as a substitute, in two and a half years.[2] 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 Club Brugge on a free transfer.[2]

Club Brugge

In the 2004–05 season, Balaban scored 25 goals in 24 appearances for Club Brugge; in the 2005–06 season, he scored 27 goals in 30 games for Brugge. In August 2007, Balaban went back to Dinamo after Brugge had bought the top scorer François Sterchele. Balaban stated he would miss Brugge very much and he had a wonderful time at the club. He earned the nickname amongst Brugge fans of "Super Bosko", due to him scoring four times in one match and scoring at an average of 0.5 goals per match.

Dinamo Zagreb

During Balaban's time at Dinamo Zagreb, he had an incident with fascistic salute, which he made to fans after scoring a goal against Inter Zapresic. He had to pay a fine of 100KN (around 14 Euros).[3]

Panionios

In June 2009, Panionios signed Balaban on a three-year contract. Balaban scored eight goals and he was Panionios' first scorer for the Super League 2009–10.

Selangor FA

On 29 January 2012, Malaysian Super League team Selangor FA signed Balaban for an undisclosed fee. He debuted, and scored the winning goal in the game against league leaders Kelantan FA on 14 February 2012, Selangor winning 2–1.[4][5]

After helping Selangor to qualify for the 2013 AFC Cup, Balaban's contract was not extended after a mutual agreement.[6]

Career statistics

Club

[7]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup League Cup Continental Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Croatia League Croatian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
HNK Rijeka1995–96Prva HNL3000––--30
1996–9719110––--201
1997–9826120––--281
1998–9923420––--254
1999–00291631––203417
Dinamo Zagreb2000–01Prva HNL251435––403219
2001–022100––0021
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
Aston Villa2001–02FA Premier League800000--80
Croatia League Croatian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
Dinamo Zagreb2002–03Prva HNL24152300403018
Belgium League Belgian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
Club Brugge2003–04Belgian Pro League0000000000
2004–052293010843413
2005–0630131011834017
2006–07291664--534023
Croatia League Croatian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
Dinamo Zagreb2007–08Prva HNL181142--612814
2008–0913634--922512
Greece League Greek Cup Super Cup Europe Total
Panionios2009–10Superleague24831----279
2010–1126410----274
Malaysia League FA Cup Malaysia Cup Asia Total
Selangor FA2012Liga Super20122184--279
CountryCroatia 1826919150025322687
England 8000000080
Belgium 834010421211011655
Greece 50124100005413
Malaysia 20122184003017
Career total 34313335211054613434172

International career

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 16 August 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 24 March 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 9 October 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 3 September 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.

International appearances

Croatia national team
YearAppsGoals
200031
200195
200220
200310
200430
200562
200662
200750
Total3510

[8]

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
01.16 August 2000Tehelné pole, Bratislava, Slovakia Slovakia0 – 11–1Friendly
02.24 March 2001Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia Latvia1 – 04–12002 FIFA World Cup qualification
03.24 March 2001Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia Latvia2 – 04–12002 FIFA World Cup qualification
04.24 March 2001Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia Latvia3 – 04–12002 FIFA World Cup qualification
05.2 June 2001Stadion Varteks, Varaždin, Croatia San Marino2 – 04–02002 FIFA World Cup qualification
06.6 June 2001Skonto Stadions, Riga, Latvia Latvia0 – 10–12002 FIFA World Cup qualification
07.3 September 2005Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland Iceland1 – 11–32006 FIFA World Cup qualification
08.3 September 2005Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland Iceland1 – 21–32006 FIFA World Cup qualification
09.23 May 2006Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria Austria1 – 41–4Friendly
10.7 October 2007Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia Andorra6 – 07–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge
Individual

References

  1. ↑ Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2002). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003. Queen Anne Press. p. 27. ISBN 9781852916480.
  2. 1 2 3 Fifield, Dominic (4 December 2003). "Balaban's contract terminated by Villa". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "JOE's Forgotten Footballers: Boško Balaban". Joe. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Zulhilmi Zainal (14 February 2012). "Selangor 2–1 Kelantan: Bosko Balaban proves he is worth the wait". Goal.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  5. ↑ K. RAJAN (15 February 2012). "Bosko starts with a bang". The Star. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Irfan ikat bekas peledak Croatia" (in Malay). bharian.com.my. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "Boško Balaban Dinamo statistics". povijest.gnkdinamo.hr. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  8. ↑ "BOŠKO BALABAN". hns-cff.hr. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
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