Boško Balaban
Balaban playing for Dinamo Zagreb in 2008
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Boško Balaban | ||
| Date of birth | 15 October 1978 | ||
| Place of birth | Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1995–2000 | Rijeka | 97 | (21) |
| 2000–2001 | Dinamo Zagreb | 27 | (14) |
| 2001–2003 | Aston Villa | 8 | (0) |
| 2002–2003 | → Dinamo Zagreb (loan) | 24 | (15) |
| 2003–2007 | Club Brugge K.V. | 83 | (40) |
| 2007–2009 | Dinamo Zagreb | 31 | (17) |
| 2009–2012 | Panionios | 50 | (12) |
| 2012 | Selangor FA | 20 | (12) |
| Total | 340 | (131) | |
| National team | |||
| 2000–2007 | Croatia | 35 | (10) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:36, 28 October 2012 (UTC). |
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Boško Balaban (born 15 October 1978) is a retired Croatian footballer who last played for Selangor FA in the Malaysia Super League as a striker until 2013 when his contract was not extended after a mutual agreement.
He is a former member of the Croatia national team.
Born in Rijeka, he started playing for local club HNK Rijeka and appeared in 97 matches between 1995 and 2000, scoring a total of 21 goals. During the 1999–2000 season, he was the top scorer of his team with 15 goals and attracted the attention of another Croatian club, Dinamo Zagreb. Playing for Dinamo, Balaban kept up his goalscoring form and once again became the league's top scorer with 14 goals in 25 games. Two games into the following season, he was signed by Aston Villa for a fee of £5.8 million, earning a £20,000-a-week contract.
Balaban failed to find any form for Aston Villa, making just nine appearances, seven as a substitute, in two and a half years. He was loaned back to Dinamo Zagreb for the 2002–03 season, scoring 15 times in 24 appearances.
In December 2003, Aston Villa released Balaban from his contract and he signed for Club Brugge on a free transfer.
In the 2004–05 season, Balaban scored 25 goals in 24 appearances for Club Brugge; in the 2005–06 season, he scored 27 goals in 30 games for Brugge. In August 2007, Balaban went back to Dinamo after Brugge had bought the top scorer François Sterchele. Balaban stated he would miss Brugge very much and he had a wonderful time at the club. He earned the nickname amongst Brugge fans of "Super Bosko", due to him scoring four times in one match and scoring at an average of 0.5 goals per match.
During Balaban's time at Dinamo Zagreb, he had an incident with fascistic salute, which he made to fans after scoring a goal against Inter Zapresic. He had to pay a fine of 100KN (around 14 Euros).
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