Antonio Rukavina
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Antonio Rukavina | ||
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Right back | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| Number | 14 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of May 28, 2008 | |||
Antonio Rukavina (Serbian Cyrillic: Антонио Рукавина; born January 26, 1984 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia[1]), is a Serbian football player. Currently is Rukavina playing for Borussia Dortmund as a defender. Rukavina joined Partizan in January 2007 after an impressive spell with FK Bežanija, and eventually became team captain. He is a prominent member of the Serbian national team after being called up from the U-21 team. On the 5th of January 2008, Rukavina was transferred to German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for a fee of €2.5m.
Because of his Croatian name, there were media speculations that leaders of Hrvatski nogometni savez (Croatian Football Federation) Vlatko Marković and Zorislav Srebrić 'll engage him to play for Croatia national football team, as they did with some other Croats from abroad (as they did with Josip Šimunić, Ivan Klasnić, Dado Pršo, Kovač brothers and Mladen Petrić; the fight for Rakitić was in process), but three days later, Rukavina has in his statement removed all those speculations [2] [3].
Croatian or Serbian origin?
Because of his Croatian name, there were media speculations that Rukavina was of Croatian origin. Antonio himself denied this for Serbian newspaper “Kurir”, saying “My father's grandmother (Rukavina's great-grandmother) is of Croatian origin, and that’s the only thing I have in common with Croatia. My father is a big Orthodox Christian. When I hear Serbian national anthem Boze Pravde I get goose bumps” [4].
Trivia
His nickname is Pirke.
References
- ^ Antonio Rukavina timeline and stats by FootballDatabase.com.
- ^ Template:Hr icon Jutarnji list Zemunski Hrvat zvijezda prijelaznog roka u Srbiji, Dec 26, 2006
- ^ Template:Hr icon Jutarnji list Antonio Rukavina: Nemam namjere igrati za Hrvatsku, Dec 29, 2006
- ^ Template:Sr icon Kurir Antonio Rukavina: 100% Serbian , Dec 29, 2006
External links
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