Nikola Pokrivač

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Nikola Pokrivač (born 26 November 1985) is a Croatian football player who is currently playing as defensive midfielder for AS Monaco in the French Ligue 1. He is well known for his versatility, and can also play as a fullback and even as a centre back.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Croatia

Pokrivač moved from the youth ranks of his home-town club NK Čakovec to those of Varteks Varaždin in the early 2000s and became a member of Varteks' first team for the 2004-2005 season, making his league debut against NK Zadar on 7 August 2004. He managed to establish himself as a regular at Varteks in 2005 and also represented the club in the UEFA Intertoto Cup in the summer of the same year as well as in 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.

His good performances at Varteks eventually secured him a move to Croatia's top club Dinamo Zagreb in the winter break of the 2006-2007 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 represented Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Champions League qualifying as well as in the UEFA Cup during the first half of the 2007-2008 season, making a total of 10 appearances in the two competitions.

[edit] AS 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 away draw at Paris Saint-Germain, playing the full 90 minutes. He continued to appear regularly for the club over the following two months, until being sent off with a straight red card in the final moments of the club's away match against OGC Nice on 19 April 2008.

[edit] International career

Pokrivač has played for the Croatian under-21 national team and has 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.^[1]

On 5 May 2008, he received his first call-up to the Croatian national team at senior level, being added to their 23-man squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland.^[2] He went on to make his international debut on 24 May 2008 in an international friendly against Moldova in Rijeka, coming on as a substitute for Niko Kovač on the hour.

[edit] References

v • d • e Croatia squad - UEFA Euro 2008 1 Pletikosa • 2 Šimić • 3 Šimunić • 4 Robert Kovač • 5 Ćorluka • 6 Vejić • 7 Rakitić • 8 Vukojević • 9 Kalinić • 10 Niko Kovač • 11 Srna • 12 Galinović • 13 Pokrivac • 14 Modrić • 15 Knežević • 16 Leko • 17 Klasnić • 18 Olić • 19 Kranjčar • 20 Budan • 21 Petrić • 22 Pranjić • 23 Runje • Coach: Bilić