Gordon Schildenfeld
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gordon Schildenfeld | ||
| Height | 1.92 m (6 ft 3+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Duisburg (loan from Beşiktaş) | ||
| Number | 33 | ||
Gordon Schildenfeld (born March 18, 1985 in Šibenik) is a Croatian football defender who is currently playing for Duisburg in the Bundesliga. He is of Volksdeutsche heritage.
Club career
Šibenik
Schildenfeld began playing football at his hometown club HNK Šibenik. The club's then manager Stanko Mršić gave him his senior debut at the age of 16, against NK Kamen Ingrad. In the 2005-06 season, Schildenfeld helped Šibenik winning promotion to the top flight.
Dinamo Zagreb
Midway through his first season in the Croatian first division, the country's top clubs Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb became interested in signing Schildenfeld and his Šibenik teammate Ante Rukavina. It first seemed likely that Schildenfeld and Rukavina would move to Hajduk together, but then Dinamo entered the race for the two players. In the end, on 2 January 2007, Schildenfeld moved to Dinamo while Rukavina joined archrivals Hajduk. Despite only having five months of top-flight experience at the time, Schildenfeld quickly managed to establish himself as a regular at Dinamo and helped the club winning both Croatian league and cup titles, also netting the crucial away goal against NK Slaven Belupo in the second leg of the cup final.
In the first part of the 2007-08 season, Schildenfeld was also one of the regulars in Dinamo Zagreb's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup campaign, appearing in 5 Champions League qualifying matches and 4 UEFA Cup matches before the club was knocked out of the latter competition in the group stage. Schildenfeld became an unlucky figure in Dinamo's 2-1 defeat at Norwegian side SK Brann in their second match in the UEFA Cup group stage, causing a penalty and being sent off for a professional foul in the final moments of the first half. He missed the last two group matches, against Hamburger SV and Stade Rennais, because of the red card.
Beşiktaş
Although he was initially set to stay at Dinamo Zagreb, Schildenfeld was signed by Turkish top club Beşiktaş in unexpected circumstances on 1 February 2008. Beşiktaş were actually ready to sign Schildenfeld's teammate Dino Drpić, but the deal fell through due to Drpić's behaviour after a Croatian league match between Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split almost two years earlier (see Drpić's article for details).
Schildenfeld made his Super League debut on 9 February 2008, coming on as a late substitute in Beşiktaş's 2-0 defeat at Kayserispor. [1] He played his first full Super League match a week later as Beşiktaş beat Ankaraspor 3-2 at home. [2] On May 25, 2008 Schildenfeld mutually terminated his contract with Beşiktaş.[1]
International career
On 1 March 2006, Schildenfeld won his only international cap for the Croatian national under-21 team, coming on as a substitute in a friendly match against Denmark. [3]