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Nenad Gračan

Nenad Gračan (born 23 January 1962) is a Croatian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the coach of the Croatia women's national football team.

Club career

Born in Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia, Gračan started playing professionally for hometown's NK Orijent and, soon thereafter, HNK Rijeka, amassing nearly 150 official appearances. He then moved to another club in his native Croatia, HNK Hajduk Split. During his first match at Hajduk Gračan was injured while playing against his former club by Mladen Mladenović who nearly broke Gračan's leg. Because of this injury he appeared intermittently for Hajduk over the course of four full seasons.[1]

Late into 1989, Gračan signed with La Liga club Real Oviedo. Joined by compatriots Janko Janković and Nikola Jerkan in his second season, he helped the Asturians finish sixth and qualify for the UEFA Cup by contributing with 26 matches, and eventually appeared in more than 100 games overall.

Aged almost 31, Gračan left Oviedo and returned to his country, now independent. After two years of inactivity he played a handful of games with first professional club Rijeka, but retired shortly after. In the following decade, he took up coaching, starting with his last team as a player, but he rarely settled.

International career

Gračan made his debut for Yugoslavia in a March 1984 friendly match against Hungary and earned a total of 10 caps, scoring 2 goals. He never attended any major international tournament. In 1984, the then 21-year-old helped the Olympic squad win the bronze medal in Los Angeles, featuring in all games but one and scoring in the quarterfinals against West Germany (5–2).[2] His final international was a May 1986 friendly away against Belgium.[3]

International appearances

International goals

Managerial career

In June 2001, he was named manager of Hajduk Split.[5]Gračan was dismissed as manager of Pula in May 2007[6] and he took charge of Rijeka for a third time in November 2009.[7]

Personal life

Gračan married former miss Croatia Daniela Mihalic in 1999. The couple have three daughters.[8]

Career statistics

As a player

[9][10][11]

Managerial statistics

As of 18 November 2018[12]

Club

National team

*Dates of first and last games under Gračan; not dates of official appointments

Honours

Player

Hajduk Split
Yugoslavia
Individual

References

  1. ^ "Mladenović Gračanu slomio nogu". index.hr. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  2. ^ Nenad Gračan – FIFA competition record (archived)
  3. ^ "Player Database". EU-football. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  4. ^ Nenad Gračan Statistics FIFA. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  5. ^ Nenad Gračan novi trener Hajduka - SportNet (in Croatian)
  6. ^ Nenad Gračan više nije trener Pule - Dnevnik (in Croatian)
  7. ^ Nenad Gračan opet novi trener Rijeke! - Jutarnji (in Croatian)
  8. ^ RIJETKI IZLAZAK DANIELE GRAČAN I SUPRUGA: U braku su 23 godine i imaju tri kćeri, a ona oduševljava mladolikim izgledom - Story (in Croatian)
  9. ^ "Nenad Gračan statistics". bdfutbol.com. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  10. ^ "HNK Rijeka". nk-rijeka.hr. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  11. ^ "Fudbal ex-YU 1945.-1992". zerodic.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  12. ^ "Nenad Gračan's Managerial statistics in Prva HNL". hrnogomet.com. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.

External links