Personal information | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Nenad Gračan | ||||||||||||||
Date of birth | 23 January 1962 | ||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia | ||||||||||||||
Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||
Playing position | Midfielder | ||||||||||||||
Club information | |||||||||||||||
Current team
|
Croatia U21 (coach) | ||||||||||||||
Youth career | |||||||||||||||
Rijeka | |||||||||||||||
Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||
1979–1980 | Orijent | ||||||||||||||
1980–1986 | Rijeka | 136 | (31) | ||||||||||||
1986–1989 | Hajduk Split | 55 | (10) | ||||||||||||
1989–1993 | Oviedo | 90 | (1) | ||||||||||||
1995–1996 | Rijeka | 10 | (1) | ||||||||||||
Total | 291 | (43) | |||||||||||||
National team | |||||||||||||||
1984–1986 | Yugoslavia | 10 | (2) | ||||||||||||
Teams managed | |||||||||||||||
1998–2000 | Rijeka | ||||||||||||||
2001 | Hajduk Split | ||||||||||||||
2001–2002 | FC Koper | ||||||||||||||
2002–2003 | Osijek | ||||||||||||||
2004 | Dinamo Zagreb | ||||||||||||||
2007 | Istra 1961 | ||||||||||||||
2008 | Nafta Lendava | ||||||||||||||
2009 | Croatia Sesvete | ||||||||||||||
2009–2010 | Rijeka | ||||||||||||||
2013– | Croatia U21 | ||||||||||||||
Honours
|
|||||||||||||||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Nenad Gračan (born 23 January 1962) is a retired Croatian footballer who played as a central midfielder, and a current coach.
Born in Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia, Gračan started playing professionally for hometown's NK Orijent and, soon thereafter, HNK Rijeka, amassing nearly 150 official appearances. He then moved to another club in his native Croatia, HNK Hajduk Split, for which he appeared intermittently over the course of four full seasons.
Late into 1989, Gračan signed with La Liga club Real Oviedo. Joined by compatriots Janko Janković and Nikola Jerkan in his second season, he helped the Asturians finish sixth and qualify for the UEFA Cup by contributing with 26 matches, and eventually appeared in more than 100 games overall.
Aged almost 31, Gračan left Oviedo and returned to his country, now independent. After two years of inactivity he played a handful of games with first professional club Rijeka, but retired shortly after. In the following decade, he took up coaching, starting with his last team as a player, but he rarely settled.
Gračan was capped ten times for Yugoslavia, but never attended any major international tournament. In 1984, the 21-year-old helped the Olympic squad win the bronze medal in Los Angeles, featuring in all but one games and scoring in the quarterfinals against West Germany (5–2).