Nikola Pokrivač

NK Varteks

Pokrivač started to play football with amateur side Bratstvo Jurovec, near his hometown. He went on to continue his youth career with Čakovec and NK Varteks, eventually advancing to the first team at Varteks in the summer of 2004. Making his senior domestic league debut for Varteks against Zadar on 7 August 2004, Pokrivač went on to establish himself as a regular at the club in 2005. He also appeared in some European matches for the club, playing in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in the summer of 2005 and the UEFA Cup qualifying a year later. In 2006, he also played for Varteks in the two-legged final of the Croatian Cup, where they lost to HNK Rijeka on away goals after a 5–5 draw on aggregate.

Dinamo Zagreb

His good performances at Varteks eventually secured him a move to Croatia's top club Dinamo Zagreb in the winter break of the 2006–07 season. He quickly became a regular at his new club and also helped them winning both the Croatian league and cup titles in 2007. He also collected further experience in European competitions with Dinamo, making a total of 10 appearances in both the UEFA Champions League qualifying and the UEFA Cup during the first half of the 2007–08 season.

Monaco

On 30 January 2008, Pokrivač moved to French Ligue 1 side AS Monaco on a four-and-a-half-year contract. He made his league debut on 23 February 2008 in Monaco's 1–1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain, playing the full 90 minutes. He continued to appear regularly for the…

Pokrivač played for the Croatia under-21 national team and also represented the country at both the under-17 and under-19 levels. He won a total of 39 international caps and scored three goals for all Croatian youth national teams between 2001 and 2006. On 5 May 2008, he received his first call-up for the Croatia national team at senior level, being added to their 23-man squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland. He went on to make his international debut on 24 May 2008 in a friendly match against Moldova in Rijeka, coming on as a substitute for Niko Kovač in the 59th minute. At the UEFA Euro 2008 finals, he only appeared in Croatia's final group match against Poland, completing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 victory for Croatia. Pokrivač went on to make five appearances in Croatia's unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, appearing in both matches against Kazakhstan and England as well as the away fixture at Andorra. He only started one of the five matches, being in the starting line-up for Croatia in their 5–1 defeat to England at Wembley. However, he was substituted at half-time after a poor performance in the first half. Pokrivač earned a total of 15 caps, scoring no goals. His final international was an October 2010 friendly against Norway.

Club

International

Pokrivač was married to Katarina Pokrivač, with whom he had one daughter. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent treatment. On the evening of 18 April 2025, Pokrivač died in a traffic collision near Karlovac involving four cars, which also killed another person while three others were hospitalised with serious injuries.