Igor Tudor

Igor Tudor
Personal information
Date of birth 16 April 1978 (1978-04-16) (age 33)
Place of birth Split, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position Defender, defensive midfielder
Youth career
Hajduk Split
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1995–1999 Hajduk Split 58 (3)
1999–2007 Juventus 110 (15)
2005–2006 → Siena (loan) 39 (2)
2007–2008 Hajduk Split 8 (1)
Total 215 (21)
National team
1994 Croatia U16 1 (0)
1993 Croatia U17 4 (0)
1994–1995 Croatia U18 3 (0)
1995 Croatia U19 2 (0)
1994–2000 Croatia U21 12 (2)
1997–2006 Croatia 55 (3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Igor Tudor (born 16 April 1978 in Split) is a Croatian former football defender. He was considered one of Croatia's best defenders in the period between the late 1990s and mid-2000s.

Tudor announced his retirement on 22 July 2008, at the mere age of 30, after the problems with his right ankle reappeared. He spent his last season playing for his youth club, Hajduk Split.

Contents

Club career

Early years

Tudor started his professional career at Hajduk Split in 1995 scoring 5 goals in 58 matches, being considered a revelation for his technique and ball control above the average of a defender.

Juventus

After three seasons at Hajduk Split, he was acquired by Italian giants Juventus in 1998. During his time with Juventus, he won the Croatian Player of the Year award in 2002.[1] During his 8-year spell with the club, Tudor was in excellent form, albeit injuries, and formed impressive defensive partnerships with the likes of Paolo Montero, Mark Iuliano, Gianluca Pessotto, Lilian Thuram, Alessandro Birindelli, Nicola Legrottaglie, Gianluca Zambrotta, Jonathan Zebina, Giorgio Chiellini, and Fabio Cannavaro. During this period Juventus had one of the strongest teams in the world and Tudor contributed well, with over 150 total appearances for the club, scoring nearly 20 goals, as a center back. However, after a major injury in 2004, Tudor was loaned out to AC Siena in January 2005, after 7 seasons with Juventus. Following Calciopoli and the expiration of his loan contract with Siena, Tudor returned to Juventus, but injuries kept him off the pitch all the season. His contract expired on 30 June 2007.

Return to Croatia

Constantly struggling with injuries and mysterious bacterial infection of his ankle, Tudor was almost forced to end his career in 2007, but in June 2007 he decided to join his former club Hajduk Split after not renewing his contract with Juventus. After a highly cautious rehabilitation process his comeback was in the match against NK Zadar on 20 October 2007. This was his first official match in over 16 months. However he was unable to reach his previous form and his ankle injury problems continued. On 22 July 2008, he announced his early retirement, due to his recurring ankle injury problems.

International career

Tudor played for the Croatian national football team between 1997 to 2006. He also won several international caps for the Croatian under-17, under-19 and under-21 national teams between 1993 and 2000.

He made his debut in Croatia's final match of the 1998 World Cup qualifying, a 1-1 draw at Ukraine on 15 November 1997, coming on as a substitute for Aljoša Asanović in the 89th minute. He was subsequently also part of the Croatian squad that won the bronze medal at the 1998 World Cup finals in France. At the tournament, he made three appearances as a substitute in the closing stages of Croatia's games against Japan, Romania and the Netherlands.

After the 1998 World Cup, he made 4 appearances in the Croatian national team's unsuccessful qualifying campaign for Euro 2000, being in the starting line-up on all 4 occasions. He also appeared in 6 matches during Croatia's qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup, but missed the final tournament in South Korea and Japan due to an injury.

He returned to the national team during the qualifying stages for Euro 2004, appearing in seven qualifying matches. At the finals in Portugal, he appeared in two of Croatia's three group matches. In his first appearance at the tournament, a 2-2 draw against France, he scored an own goal to put the French side 1-0 up midway through the first half. His second appearance at the tournament came in Croatia's final group match against England, where he scored Croatia's second goal to keep their hopes alive after they found themselves 3-1 down in the second half. However, Frank Lampard soon netted England's 4th goal and Croatia were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage.

Tudor was also included in Croatia's 23-man squad for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, having appeared in 8 qualifying matches for the tournament, also scoring two goals. He recorded his first goal of the qualifying when he scored Croatia's final goal in their 3-0 win at home to Malta on 30 March 2005. His second goal of the competition came in Croatia's 3-1 win at Bulgaria on 4 June 2005, when he put Croatia 2-0 up just over half an hour from time. At the 2006 World Cup finals, he started all of Croatia's three group matches and played the full 90 minutes in two of them. However, Croatia were eliminated from the tournament after a 2-2 draw against Australia in their final group match, with Tudor receiving his second yellow card of the tournament for complaining about the penalty kick from which Australia scored a 1-1 equaliser. He made no further appearances for the national team following the tournament.

International goals

Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 21 June 2004 Estádio da Luz, Lisbon  England
2 – 3
2 – 4
 Euro 2004
2 30 March 2005 Maksimir, Zagreb  Malta
3 – 0
3 – 0
 World Cup 2006 Qualifying
3 4 June 2005 Vasil Levski, Sofia  Bulgaria
2 – 0
3 – 1
 World Cup 2006 Qualifying

Career statistics

[2]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Croatia League Croatian Cup League Cup Europe Total
1995-96 Hajduk Split Prva HNL 9 0
1996-97 23 1
1997-98 26 4
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
1998-99 Juventus Serie A 23 1
1999-00 17 1
2000-01 25 6
2001-02 14 4
2002-03 14 1
2003-04 15 2
2004-05 3 0
2004-05 Siena Serie A 15 1
2005-06 24 1
2006-07 Juventus Serie B 0 0
Croatia League Croatian Cup League Cup Europe Total
2007-08 Hajduk Split Prva HNL
2008-09
Total Croatia 58 5
Italy 150 17
Career total 208 22

References

General
Specific
  1. ^ "Award-Winning Tudor Takes Plaudits In His Stride". Juventus Football. 1 January 2002. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027162433/http://geocities.com/juventusfootball/news/archived02/010102.htm. 
  2. ^ "Igor Tudor". level-k.com. http://www.level-k.com/player/I_Tudor.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2011.