Josip Šimunić
Josip "Joe" Šimunić [ jɔsip ʃimunitɕ ] ( born February 18, 1978 in Canberra, Australia) is a Croatian football player. He stands at the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb under contract.
Career
Association
Šimunić graduated from the support program of the Australian Institute of Sport and thereupon began his career with the Melbourne Knights. He was awarded the NSL Youth Player of the Year in 1996. After a three-month interlude in the Melbourne club Carlton SC, he moved to 1 November 1997 Hamburger SV. There he made his debut on May 2, 1998, when he was a substitute in a 1-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund in the 84th minute for Jacek Dembinski. Šimunić remained until 2000 at HSV, never arrived there, however, beyond the role of reservists and so completed only eight Bundesliga appearances for the club.
For the season 2000/ 01 he moved to Hertha BSC, where he wore the first time it is now incumbent shirt number 14. After a mixed first season Šimunić developed at the beginning of the 2001/02 season a regular place, he apart from injury-related breaks until the end of his commitment to the Hertha claimed. Despite his heading ability it took until December 2, 2006, until he scored his first Bundesliga goal in the away game against Werder Bremen. From the kicker him " superior technology" were " impressive overview" and certified a total of " international class" and he was named for the seasons 2004/ 05 and 2008/ 09 the best central defender in the Bundesliga. Šimunić completed a total of 222 league games for the Berlin, with whom he repeatedly reached the international competitions.
For the season 2009/10 he moved for a transfer fee of € 7 million for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Once he was the undisputed master player in his first season, he came in the 2010/11 season after an injury only irregularly employed. After Šimunić had publicly drawn and expresses a change in consideration to be dissatisfied with his situation in the club, the club suspended him in March 2011 from the team training until the player purified showed a short time later.
31 August 2011 Šimunić moved to Croatia to Dinamo Zagreb.
National
Although Šimunić, whose parents had emigrated from the Bosnian Kiseljak to Canberra in Australia, was born in Australia and grew up, he decided to play for Croatia and made his debut on 10 November 2001 in a friendly match against South Korea for the Croatian national team. After injury-related failure Igor Tudor, he was appointed to the Croatian squad for the FIFA 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Although he had been involved in any qualifier, he was in all three games of Croatia on the court. He was subsequently also the Croatian team at the 2004 European Championships, the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008.
On February 6, 2013, made , and Stipe Pletikosa and Darijo Srna 4-0 victory over South Korea her 100th international game.
Scandal about the Ustasha slogan
After the successful qualification for the 2014 World Cup on November 19, 2013 Šimunić caused a scandal. The defender took after the 2-0 win in the return leg in Zagreb against Iceland, the stadium microphone and shouted toward the fans in the antiphonal singing with the audience five times " Za Dom - SPREMNI ," the salutation of the Croatian fascist Ustasha movement. Already during the game had fans from the stands saying things like " Let's go, Ustaschas " chanted.
The Croatian public was horrified by Simunic behavior, newspapers wrote about a " disgrace " and that Šimunić had destroyed with his behavior the joy of reaching the finals in Brazil. Šimunić himself defended his behavior by saying that he had " done nothing wrong " and had " his home " love. Croatian media quoted him as saying "I wanted to ever want to do. And I do not care if you can punish me. "Two days later to racial hatred imposed the maximum fine of the equivalent of 3270 euros for this offense in sporting competitions of the Croatian judiciary against the 35 year old professional for incitement. According verdict is Šimunić the meaning of his statements was aware. Then the football 's world governing body Fifa started disciplinary proceedings against Šimunić.
The following weekend, cried several thousand supporters of Hajduk Split Torcida Split, the, the Ustasha salute at the home game against NK Osijek in Poljud Stadium, as well as " Let's go Ustaschas ". The Sangesgruß was dedicated Šimunić. A Facebook page in support of the player recorded around 160,000 followers within the first few days.
On December 12, 2013 Šimunić has been banned by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for ten official matches of the Croatian Football Federation, the sentence was communicated to the Croatian Association and the players four days later. The lock is only effective with the beginning of the World Cup finals, so that Šimunić is not eligible to play in this. Depending on the athletic performance of Croatia at the World Cup, the remaining barrier is distributed to the following official games of the representative team. Furthermore him a fine of CHF 30,000 and a stadium ban for the 10 games for which he is locked imposed.
The FIFA committee came to the conclusion that by this action the dignity of persons, inter alia, had been violated with respect to race, religion or national origin, and consequently there is a clear violation of the disciplinary rules of FIFA.
Curiosities
In the preliminary round match of the 2006 World Cup against Australia, he got by a mistake of the referee Graham Poll three yellow cards in a game shown. The referee had Šimunić according to the rules already in the second yellow card must refer to it by a second yellow card of the game field. Poll ended then after the tournament his international career. In his autobiography, Poll explaining the incident in order to have because of its Australian accent mistakenly assigned Simunic second warning the Australian player with the jersey number 3, Craig Moore.
On 11 October 2009 he was removed together with Ivica Križanac by the Croatian coach Slaven Bilic from the national squad because he is said to have come with his teammate Ivica Križanac any violent incident. Šimunić denied the allegations and was already on 14 November 2009 back in Croatia starting in the match against Luxembourg.
Josip Šimunić has also a cousin of the same name who plays as handball players in Austria, the UHC Stockerau.
Achievements
- Croatian Cup: 2012, 2013
- Croatian Cup: 2012
- Australian Masters: 1996