Igor Bišćan

Early career

At the start of his career, Bišćan began to amass an impressive level of playing experience, representing Croatia at youth football level and then captaining his club, Dinamo Zagreb, in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup. He was part of what is considered the most successful era of Dinamo in the Prva HNL, winning two consecutive league titles in 1999 and 2000 and participating in two consecutive group stages of Champions League (Group A, 1998–99 and Group D, 1999–2000). During his four seasons in Croatia, Bišćan scored 11 goals in 84 appearances in domestic leagues, which brought attention of foreign clubs to the promising midfielder.

Liverpool

On 8 December 2000, Bišćan contract was bought-out by Liverpool for £5.5 million at the behest of its manager, Gérard Houllier, having been sought by Juventus, Barcelona, Ajax and Milan. His debut came in a Premier League match against Ipswich Town, which Liverpool lost 1–0, with Bišćan coming off the bench to replace Christian Ziege in 71st minute. One week later, he played full 90 minutes against Manchester United at Old Trafford, with Liverpool breaking 3,240 minutes of United's undefeated run at their home ground by defeating them 1–0. He made an impressive start to his Liverpool career, briefly displacing Dietmar Hamann from the starting 11 as the defensive midfielder. He made 21 appearances by the end of the 2000–01 season, 15 of which he started and six of which he came off the…

Bišćan's debut appearance for the Croatia national team came on a UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying match against Macedonia in Skopje on 5 June 1999. He scored his first and only international goal against Mexico on 16 June 1999. He also collected yellow cards on three occasions. Eleven out of fifteen Croatia's matches Bišćan featured in finished in a draw. His last official match was against Scotland on 1 September 2001. After leaving the national team camp in 2003, Bišćan was suspended by Croatian Football Federation and refused to play for the national team ever since. He also represented Croatia at under-21 level and was capped in the Croatia B team on one occasion.

Bišćan started his managerial career as an assistant coach at second-tier Druga HNL club Rudeš in 2016. Soon he was named head coach of the club, winning the 2016–17 Druga HNL title. One month later, Bišćan signed with Slovenian PrvaLiga club Olimpija Ljubljana to be their head coach. In his inaugural season at Olimpija, he won the Slovenian PrvaLiga title and the Slovenian Cup, but in June 2018 club president, Milan Mandarić, unexpectedly sacked him.

Rijeka

On 9 October 2018, Bišćan was named head coach of first-tier Prva HNL club Rijeka. Immediately after coming to the club, Bišćan faced criticism by the club's supporters, Armada, because of his former acts as a player of Dinamo Zagreb. He debuted at Rijeka bench in a 2–1 away win against Inter Zaprešić on 10 October. After a slew of good results, Bišćan ended the 2018–19 season in the second place in the championship, and won the Croatian Cup defeating Dinamo 3–1 in the final. On 13 July 2019, he lost the Super Cup game 1–0 to Dinamo. In August the same year, Bišćan led the team to two victories in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League over Scottish side Aberdeen. He later failed to take the club to the group stage, losing to Gent 3–2 on aggregate in the play-offs. Bišćan resigned from his position as Rijeka head coach on 22 September 2019, after a 3–0 win against Istra 1961.

Croatia U21

After Croatia U21 lost a Euro 2021 qualifier 2–1 against Scotland, head coach Nenad Gračan resigned…

In 2007, Bišćan married his wife, Marija, whom he started dating three years earlier. The couple have four daughters: Nina Marija, Bruna, Lena, and Borna.