Davor Šuker

Early career

Šuker was born in Osijek to a Bosnian Croat family from Livno. He began playing football in his home town with the club NK Osijek in 1984. In 1989, he moved to Dinamo Zagreb, where during the following two seasons he scored 34 goals in 60 Yugoslav First League matches. Šuker made such an impression that he received his first call-up to the Yugoslavia national team. His play also attracted several clubs, including Spanish club Sevilla, which he joined in 1991.

Sevilla

Šuker made his Primera División debut for Sevilla on 17 November 1991, coming off the substitutes' bench as a last-minute substitute in Sevilla's 1–1 away draw at Espanyol. In the following match, at home against Real Sociedad, he made his first start and went on to score two goals in a 2–2 draw. He finished his first season at the club with 6 goals in 22 appearances. During Sevilla's first match of the next season away at Albacete, Šuker scored his first Primera hat-trick, which led a 4–3 victory. He improved his tally from the prior season with 13 goals in 33 matches. In the 1993–94 season, Šuker was the second-highest scorer in the league with 24 goals to Barcelona's Romário. He made a total of 34 Primera appearances that season and also scored five braces and one hat-trick. Šuker played with Argentine legend Diego Maradona at the club within the 1992–93 season. During this and the next season with Sevilla, he scored a total of 33 goals in 64 appearances in the Spanish…

Šuker's eye for goals was duly illustrated in his feats at youth level. He finished as the second highest scorer as he netted six goals at the 1987 World Youth Championships in Chile. The Yugoslavians also set a Championship record with 22 goals scored altogether. Yugoslavia went on to win the title with a generation of future talents. Some of these players went on to represent Croatia such as Robert Prosinečki, Zvonimir Boban and Igor Štimac. Šuker played for Yugoslavia in the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic games. Those appearances came in group stage matches against Brazil and Nigeria. In two years time, he featured in the UEFA Under-21 Championship. He scored four goals in five matches as Yugoslavia won their group stage. Šuker also struck the only goal in the second leg of his side's 3–0 quarter-final victory on aggregate against Bulgaria. He scored once again against Italy. In the final against Soviet Union he scored one goal in the first leg. In all he tallied a sum of seven goals throughout the Championships winning the Golden Boot. Yugoslavia went on to finish as runners up with Šuker also being named as the Golden Player of the Tournament.

Senior team

After briefly playing for Yugoslavia in two matches in 1991, Šuker made his official debut for Croatia in 1992. In his first match against Mexico, he scored a brace in a 3–0 victory. He then led Croatia to their first major international tournament, UEFA Euro 1996, with a then-record 12 goals in 10 matches during…

Club

International

Real Madrid

La Liga: 1996–97 Supercopa de España: 1997 UEFA Champions League: 1997–98 Intercontinental Cup: 1998 Arsenal

UEFA Cup runner-up: 1999–2000 Yugoslavia

FIFA U-20 World Cup: 1987 UEFA European Under-21 Championship runner-up: 1990 Croatia

FIFA World Cup third place: 1998 Individual

1998 FIFA World Cup: Golden Boot 1998 FIFA World Cup: Silver Ball 1998 FIFA World Cup: All-Star Team Onze de Bronze: 1998 Ballon d'Or runner-up: 1998 FIFA World Player of the Year Bronze Award: 1998 1987 FIFA U-20 World Cup: Silver Shoe Yugoslav First League Top Goal Scorer: 1988-89 UEFA European Under-21 Championship 1990: Golden Player UEFA European Under-21 Championship 1990: Golden Boot UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament: 1996 ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1996, 1998 ESM Team of the Year: 1996–97 Croatian Footballer of the Year: 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Croatian Team of the Year: 1999, 2000 Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport: 1998 Croatian Sportsman of the year: 1998 World Soccer 100 Greatest Players of the 20th Century: 1999 UEFA Jubilee Awards Croatia's Golden Player: 2004 FIFA 100: 2004 Honoree of Osijek: 2008 Vecernji list Croatian Player of the Century All-time top scorer of the Croatia national team Orders

Order of Danica Hrvatska with face of Franjo Bučar: 1995 Order of the Croatian Trefoil: 1998 Order of Duke Trpimir with Ribbon and Star: 2018