Boško Balaban

Bosko Balaban (born 15 October 1978 Rijeka) is a Croatian football player.

Career

In the club

Bosko Balaban is striker and started his career at NK Rijeka, where he played from 1995 to 2000. After 15 goals he was top scorer in the Croatian league in the 1999/2000 season, he moved to Dinamo Zagreb. There he was again in the following season scorer and then transferred for a transfer of 9 million euros for English club Aston Villa. There, however, he could not prevail, and came only nine missions, so he returned on loan to Dinamo Zagreb, where he was able to continue his old successes. His contract at Aston Villa was still resolve, so he free transfer in 2004 moved to Belgian club Club Brugge, where he had in 2005 with eleven goals this season substantial share of the profits of the Belgian championship. In 2007 he finally moved to Dinamo Zagreb and signed a contract for two years. After his contract expired in 2009, Balaban joined the Malaysian club Selangor FA.

In the National Team

His debut in the Croatian national football team gave Balaban on August 16, 2000, compared to Slovakia. Since then, he played 27 games for his country and scored nine goals. In the 2002 World Cup he was in the squad of his national team, but played no game. For the World Cup 2006 he was nominated again.

Bosko Balaban, Darijo Srna and Ivica Olic were suspended by the Croatian Football Federation for each game after they returned too late shortly before an international match from a nightclub in the hotel.

In August 2007 he returned to Dinamo Zagreb after the Bruges scorer François Sterchele committed. The Bruges fans Balaban was nicknamed Super Bosko as he scored four goals in a game.

Achievements

• Belgian champion: 2005
• Croatian champion: 2003, 2008, 2009