Šime Vrsaljko

Early career

Vrsaljko started his senior career at Dinamo Zagreb's feeder team, Lokomotiva, where he spent the 2009–10 season training. He debuted for Lokomotiva in the Croatian top level in the match against Rijeka on 26 July 2009 at the age of 17. Vrsaljko was in the starting lineup in each of the 17 Lokomotiva's league matches in 2009, being substituted only once.

Dinamo Zagreb

He rejoined Dinamo Zagreb's squad on 22 December 2009 before the winter break and appeared in his first match for Dinamo Zagreb on 27 February 2010 against Croatia Sesvete in the Prva HNL. He made nine more appearances by the end of the season for Dinamo, making a total of 27 league appearances throughout the whole season. Vrsaljko also made one appearance in the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Croatian Cup. Vrsaljko missed the opening matches of the 2010–11 season, as he was called up for international duties with the Croatian under-19 team. He made his first appearance of the season on 31 July in a league match against Rijeka which Dinamo Zagreb lost 2–1. Vrsaljko then made his debut in European competitions, featuring in their defeat to Sheriff Tiraspol in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. In August that year he was linked with a transfer to Olympique Marseille for a fee of €4 million, but executive vice-president of the club Zdravko Mamić turned down the French club's offer. On 29 August he scored his first league goal for the club in the match…

He received his first call-up to the Croatia national football team on 2 November 2010 for the Euro 2012 qualifier against Malta. He made his national team debut on 9 February 2011 in a friendly match versus the Czech Republic. He made 3 more appearances before May 2012, when he was named in Croatia 26 players preliminary squad for UEFA Euro 2012. After the friendly match against Estonia in May 2012, Croatia manager Slaven Bilić withdrew him from the final list for UEFA Euro 2012. However, just a week after being withdrawn from the final list, he was called up again due to injury of Hamburger SV player Ivo Iličević. He was an unused substitute in all three Croatia matches at the tournament. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying phase he made only one appearance, in the match against Belgium in Zagreb. In May 2014 he was named in Croatia 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Due to injuries of in Croatian squad just before the opening match against Brazil, Vrsaljko filled in at the left-back position instead of injured Danijel Pranjić. He reprised his role as a left back in the decider against Mexico, that ended as a 3–1 defeat and saw Croatia eliminated. On 12 November 2014, at the age of 22, he was the captain of the national team in a 2–1 loss against Argentina, playing for the entire game. He became one of the youngest captains in the history of the national team, with Darijo Srna being rested for the game against Italy. In May 2018, he was named in…

Club

International

Vrsaljko's great-grandfather was killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in World War II when his paternal grandfather, whom Vrsaljko was named after, was only several months old. When his grandfather died, he was buried with Vrsaljko's Croatia national team jersey. Vrsaljko's father Mladen was also a footballer who played for NK Zadar from 1992 to 1995, and his paternal uncle Svemir is a former deputy mayor of Benkovac, who served as a commander of special unit force "Poskoci" (Long-Nosed Vipers) during the Croatian War of Independence. Vrsaljko was born in 1992 in exile in Rijeka due to bombing of his hometown of Zadar. His family returned to Zadar and nearby Nadin, where his father hails from, upon the end of the war. His mother Branka (née Ćelić) hails from Dračevac Ninski near Poličnik. In June 2017, Vrsaljko married his high school love Matea Kedžo. On 6 June 2018, the young couple got their first child, a son. In mid April 2022, Vrsaljko had his second child, a daughter, from an extramarital affair with Slovenian model Kaja Vidmar. It is believed that he separated from Kedžo in the beginning of that year. In late 2023, Vrsaljko and Vidmar welcomed their second child together, a son. In August 2026, the two married in a secret ceremony in Petrčane.

In January 2019, a photograph of Vrsaljko lying on a Croatian flag on the field of the Luzhniki Stadium after the 2018 World Cup semi-final match against England, taken by Drago Sopta, was chosen as the fourth most beautiful one…