Zvonimir Boban

Zvonimir Boban [ zʋɔnimir bɔban ] ( born October 8, 1968 in Imotski ) is a former Yugoslav and Croatian football player.

Boban started his career as a midfielder in 1985 with Dinamo Zagreb. He made his debut with two goals on 12 December 1985 against NK Radnik. At the age of 18 he was appointed captain. In the period from 1985 to 1991 ( except for the years 1988/89, the military convened ), he scored 109 goals in 227 games for Dinamo Zagreb. After his move to AC Milan, he was loaned to AS Bari in 1991, for which he scored two goals in 17 games. Back at AC Milan, he reached over 200 games with the club in the period 1992-2001 major successes, including four national championships (1993, 1994, 1996, 1999), two Italian Super Cup victories ( 1993, 1994 ), the European Supercup (1995) and winning the Champions League ( 1994).

For the Croatian national team, he completed 51 games and scored 12 goals there. He reached with Croatia at the European Football Championship in England in 1996 as captain of the quarter-finals and was at the Football World Cup 1998 in France by third parties.

Previously Boban had already contested seven A- international matches for Yugoslavia. In 1987 he contributed three goals in six games of the Yugoslav team helping to win the held in Chile U- 20 World Cup. In the final, he scored the winning penalty against Germany.

During the match between his club Dinamo Zagreb and FK Red Star Belgrade in Zagreb Maksimir Stadium on May 13, 1990, there was in the stands and the pitch riots between fans and the police. Boban participated by he entered a police officer who had previously broken a Dinamo fan. This blow to the police officer brought him sympathy among many Croatian nationalists. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, he was not allowed to participate due to a subsequently imposed by the Yugoslav Football Association eight -month ban. The kick was in Croatia a symbol of the uprising against the Belgrade regime and visible sign of the subsequent cleavage of Yugoslavia. In the documentary The Last Yugoslavian Team Boban takes on the events in Zagreb Stadium, to his relationship with Yugoslavia and the establishment of the State of Croatia position.

Boban ended in October 2001 at Celta Vigo in Spain his career. On October 7, 2002, his farewell game in Zagreb Maksimir stadium took place.

After the end of his career Boban acquired the Dr. phil. in history from the University of Zagreb with his doctoral thesis Christianity in the Roman Empire. He also began a career in sports journalism as a senior managing editor for the Croatian sports paper Sportske novosti and now works as a football commentator on RTL Televizija, the Italian pay-TV broadcaster Sky Italia and columnist of the Gazzetta dello Sport.

2003 Boban was appointed UEFA ambassador.