Ivica Olić

Ivica Olić [] (born September 14 1979) is a Croatian football player who plays for Hamburger SV and the Croatia national football team. Olić is often praised by the fans for his great work rate and stamina on the pitch, with the ability to draw two or three defenders onto him.

Career

Club career

Early career

Olić was born and raised in the village of Davor near Nova Gradiska, Croatia. He started playing football for the local club Marsonia in 1996, and spent two good seasons there before he was acquired by Hertha Berlin in 1998. He did not see much play there and returned home to Marsonia the following year.

After another successful season at Marsonia (in the 2000/01 season he scored 17 goals in 29 games), in 2001 he moved to NK Zagreb where he would score 21 goals in 28 appearances and help his team to win the league. The following season he moved to Dinamo Zagreb, where he scored 16 goals in 27 games, and became the best striker of the Croatian First League.

CSKA Moscow

In 2003, Olić was acquired by CSKA. His form rose gradually, and in the 2005 season he contributed 10 goals in twice as many games.

Hamburger SV

In January 2007, Olić moved to Hamburger SV, playing his first Bundesliga game with them against Energie Cottbus on January 31. He was signed because Hamburg were in deep trouble, finishing in the relegation zone before the winter break. It worked out in the end and Hamburg finished seventh, which even acquired them an Intertoto Cup place. He scored two goals in the last match in the 2006-07 Bundesliga season against Alemannia Aachen in a 4-0 win. In October 2007 Olić scored a hat-trick in the Bundesliga match against VfB Stuttgart, which Hamburg won 4:1. He was the first player in the club's history to score three successive goals in one half. Olić effectively won the 2008 Emirates Cup for Hamburg, with two injury time goals against Juventus increasing the team's points tally to an unassailable level (due to the points-for-goals system).

International career

2002 World Cup

Olić was part of the Croatian national team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup where he played in two games and scored one goal, but an important one against Italy which ended 2-1 for Croatia. Shortly after scoring, Olic revealed a picture of his newly born child at the time under his jersey. He was remembered as being unable to put his jersey back on, as the material became tangled in the excitement during his celebration.

Euro 2004 & 2006 World Cup

Olić also played three games for Croatia in Euro 2004, and two games in 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Party binge incident

In September 2006 Olić was dropped from Croatian squad for a qualifying match for one game due to a late-night partying binge together with Darijo Srna and Boško Balaban.

Euro 2008

Qualifying

Olić was named man of the match in the match at Wembley in which Croatia defeated England 2-3. He scored the second goal in the match, which gave Croatia a two goal lead. England could not recover and were knocked out of UEFA 2008.

Tournament

Olić was named in Croatia's 23-man squad for Euro 2008. On June 12, he scored in the 62nd minute of Croatia's second Group B match against Germany to make the score 2-0 to the Croats in a match that finished 2-1 in their favour.

In the third game Olić didn't play because the game was meaningless to Croatia. Croatia was victorious over Poland, making Croatia hold a record of 3-0-0 in the first round of Euro Cup 2008. On 15 June 2008, he was, according to Castrol Index sponsors, the fastest player at Euro 2008.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	17 April, 2002	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia		1 – 0	2 – 0	Friendly
02.	8 June, 2002	Kashima Stadium, Kashima, Japan		1 – 1	1 – 2	2002 World Cup
03.	30 April, 2003	Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden		0 – 1	2 – 1	Friendly
04.	11 October, 2003	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia		1 – 0	1 – 0	2004 Euro Qualifying
05.	29 May, 2004	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia		1 – 0	1 – 0	Friendly
06.	5 June, 2004	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark		0 – 2	1 – 2	Friendly
07.	16 October, 2007	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia		1 – 0	3 – 0	Friendly
08.	16 October, 2007	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia		3 – 0	3 – 0	Friendly
09.	21 November, 2007	Wembley Stadium, London, England		0 – 2	2 – 3	2008 Euro Qualifying
10.	12 June, 2008	Hypo-Arena, Klagenfurt, Austria		2 - 0	2 – 1	Euro 2008

References

External links

• Croatian trio expelled from squad (English)
• Profile on Soccerphile.com (English)
• Become A Croatia Fan Player Profile