Dado Pršo

Club

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International

He made his debut for Croatia in a March 2003 European Championship qualification match against Belgium and went on to earn a total of 32 caps, scoring 9 goals. Pršo was part of the Croatian team at UEFA Euro 2004 where he played in three games. Pršo is remembered in this tournament for the one goal he scored against France in Leiria on 17 June 2004. After scoring four goals during qualifying, he was selected to represent his country at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. But he scored no goals during the tournament itself (where the team, as in 2004, was eliminated after the first round). His final international was at that World Cup against Australia.

Early career

Born in Zadar, Pršo began training with local clubs NK Bagat and NK Zadar before joining HNK Hajduk Split at the age of 12. He went through the ranks of Hajduk until, in 1991, a medical check allegedly revealed that he had an irregular heartbeat, prompting the team to release him, thinking he was therefore unfit for professional football. Pršo showed no traces of such a defect ever since, though. When the Croatian league was formed, he joined NK Pazinka, playing his only season at the top level of Croatian football at 18 years of age. In 1993, he moved to France to play for FC Rouen, and then moved to Saint Raphaël in 1995, where he worked as a car mechanic while he continued playing football.

Monaco

In 1996, then-AS Monaco manager Jean Tigana noticed Pršo and recruited the forward, although he would spend that season in the reserve side (alongside David Trezeguet), he was sent on loan to AC Ajaccio. In 1999–2000, he helped AS Monaco win the national championship. Pršo also helped them to the UEFA Champions League final in 2004. He is perhaps best remembered for his four goals in the 8–3 win over Deportivo La Coruña (a game which was played on his 29th birthday), which was the highest scoring Champions League scoreline. That night, he also equaled the competition record, joining Marco van Basten and Simone Inzaghi as the competition's top scorer in a single match; this has since been surpassed by Lionel Messi, Luiz Adriano and Erling…

Pršo comes from a family located in Obrovac, Zadar County. His nephew Milan Pršo has mostly played for FK Rad and represented the Serbian national youth team. According to Milan, Dado's parents once lived in Bačka Topola, Serbia, but moved back to Zadar, Croatia. Pršo and his wife Carol, who is French, have two children, Nicoline (born c. 1999) and Lorenzo (born 2001), who is also a footballer.