Robert Prosinečki

Robert Prosinečki
Personal information
Full name	Robert Prosinečki
Position(s)	Midfielder

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Robert Prosinečki [ˈrɔbɛrt ˈprɔsinɛtʃki] (born January 12, 1969 in Villingen-Schwenningen, West Germany) is a Croatian former football midfielder and current assistant manager of the Croatia national football team.

Club career

Born in West Germany to a family of Yugoslav gastarbeiters, Prosinečki moved to Yugoslavia at an early age. He started his professional career at Dinamo Zagreb where former Yugoslavian, (now Croatian) coach Miroslav Blažević sent him away, saying that, if Prosinečki ever became a real football player, he would eat his football diploma.^{[citation needed]}

Ironically Prosinečki developed into one of Yugoslavia's most gifted and talented players ever who was only held back from becoming one of the greats by his poor mental application and lack of dedication.^{[citation needed]} After that, he moved to Red Star Belgrade where he became a notable midfielder under coaches Dragoslav Šekularac and Ljupko Petrović, winning the European Cup in 1991.

He also played with Real Madrid, Real Oviedo, FC Barcelona, Sevilla FC, NK Hrvatski dragovoljac, Standard Liège, Portsmouth F.C. (where he is considered a legend despite playing only one season in the latter stages of his career), Olimpija Ljubljana, and Zagreb.

Prosinečki is still held as a folk hero at Portsmouth for his marvelous one man performances in the centre of midfield, his goals and assists saving the club from relegation in the 2001/02 season. It was after talking to Prosinečki that current Croatia international Niko Kranjčar decided to sign for Portsmouth in the summer of 2006.

Career statistics

National team

Prosinečki has 49 caps for Croatia and has scored 10 goals for his country. He was also capped 15 times, scoring four goals, for Yugoslavia. In 1987, Prosinečki was named the tournament's best player as Yugoslavia won the World Youth Championship in Chile. He then played for Yugoslavia at the 1990 World Cup and for Croatia at Euro 96 and the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. It was in 1998 that Prosinečki and the Croatian squad won third place in the World Cup, with Prosinečki scoring two goals along the way. Prosinečki is the only player to score in the World Cup finals for two different teams - Yugoslavia and Croatia.

International goals

Results list Croatia's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	23 March, 1994	Estadio Luís Casanova, Valencia, Spain	Spain	0 – 1	0 – 2	Friendly
02.	25 March, 1995	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Ukraine	3 – 0	4 – 0	Euro 1996 Qualifying
03.	26 April, 1995	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Slovenia	1 – 0	2 – 0	Euro 1996 Qualifying
04.	2 April, 1997	Poljud, Split, Croatia	Slovenia	1 – 0	3 – 3	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
05.	3 June, 1998	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia	Iran	1 – 0	2 – 0	Friendly
06.	6 June, 1998	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Australia	3 – 0	7 – 0	Friendly
07.	14 June, 1998	Stade Félix Bollaert, Lens, France	Jamaica	1 – 2	1 – 3	World Cup 1998
08.	11 July, 1998	Parc des Princes, Paris, France	Netherlands	0 – 1	1 – 2	World Cup 1998
09.	5 September, 2001	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0 – 2	0 – 4	World Cup 2002 Qualifying
10.	5 September, 2001	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	0 – 4	0 – 4	World Cup 2002 Qualifying

He is the only player in World Cup history to score for two different national teams. In 1990, he scored one goal for Yugoslavia in a group match against the United Arab Emirates and eight years later he added two goals for Croatia by scoring in a group match against Jamaica and in the third place match against the Netherlands. He played in a total of nine World Cup matches, three for Yugoslavia in 1990 and six for Croatia in 1998 and 2002.

Honours

Miscellaneous

Prosinečki became infamously known for being a heavy smoker and rumors about his ability to smoke up to 40 cigarettes a day circulated in Croatian public for some time.

In early 2006, Prosinečki made a short comeback playing for NK Savski Marof, an amateur side based in the village of Savski Marof near Zagreb, in the fourth tier of Croatian football.^[1]

Prosinečki is regarded by many as the player with best technique that ever played in and for Croatia. Former national squad teammate Zvonimir Boban, humbly, also agreed with this. His dribbling is considered excellent, and his ability to keep possession of the ball is very highly regarded.

In the summer of 2006, he was recruited as an assistant by Croatia's national team coach Slaven Bilić, with whom he has been helping plan out strategies for the team.^[2]

Prosinečki was the lead star of a commercial campaign for Renault in Spain. [1]

External links

Portsmouth club stats from http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=6489
Club stats from http://www.national-football-teams.com/php/spieler.php?id=15044
Inteview with him in Slovenian language: http://www.nogomania.com/Default.asp?podrocje=5&novica=8871

[1] Prosinečki će igrati za Savski Marof - Sport - Index.hr

[2] Croatia back among the big boys

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