Ivo Iličević

Ivo Iličević

During his tenure at 1.FC Kaiserslautern
Personal information
Date of birth 14 November 1986 (1986-11-14) (age 25)
Place of birth Aschaffenburg, West Germany
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 8 12 in)
Playing position Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club Hamburger SV
Number 11
Youth career
1994–1996 1. FC Südring Aschaffenburg
1996–2004 Viktoria Aschaffenburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2006 SV Darmstadt 98 44 (8)
2006–2008 VfL Bochum II 12 (7)
2006–2010 VfL Bochum 25 (2)
2008–2009 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (loan) 38 (4)
2009–2010 1. FC Kaiserslautern (loan) 30 (4)
2010–2011 1. FC Kaiserslautern 25 (6)
2011– Hamburger SV 6 (1)
National team
2007–2008 Croatia U21 11 (5)
2010– Croatia[1] 4 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 06:32, 20 December 2011 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 31 August 2011

Ivo Iličević (born 14 November 1986) is a Croatian football player of Bosnian Croat descent.[2]

Contents

Career

Club career

Iličević began his career in the youth ranks of Viktoria Aschaffenburg, before joining Regionalliga Süd side SV Darmstadt 98 in January 2005. At the club, he quickly became a first-team regular under former Bundesliga star Bruno Labbadia and scored 8 goals in 44 league matches. As a youth-team player, he played as a forward, but later became mainly deployed as an attacking midfielder.

In the summer of 2006, Iličević joined Bundesliga side VfL Bochum and made his top-flight debut in the club's opening match of the 2006-07 league season, a 2-1 defeat at 1. FSV Mainz 05 on 12 August 2006. On 24 September 2006, he scored his first Bundesliga goal, netting the match-winning goal in a 2-1 win at home to Arminia Bielefeld. He made a total of 19 Bundesliga appearances in his first season with Bochum, scoring two goals.

In January 2008, he was loaned to Greuther Fürth of the 2nd Bundesliga, after making just six Bundesliga appearances (without scoring a goal) with Bochum in the first half of the 2007-08 league season. He went on to spend a season and a half with Greuther Fürth, scoring four goals in 38 league appearances.

In the summer of 2009, Bochum loaned him to another 2nd Bundesliga side, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, for the entire 2009-10 season. He scored four goals in 30 league appearances, helping the team to secure promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2010-11 season. He eventually signed a contract with Kaiserslautern in the summer of 2010.

He had a great start to the 2010-11 Bundesliga season with Kaiserslautern, scoring two goals and recording two assists in the club's opening two matches, a 3-1 win at 1. FC Köln and a 2-0 win at home to Bayern Munich. In November 2010, he scored a goal in three consecutive Bundesliga matches. On 20 November 2010, he participated in all of his team's three goals in a 3-1 win at 1. FC Nuremberg, scoring their second goal and setting up the remaining two.

On 31 August 2011, on the last day of summer transfer window, he signed 4-year contract with HSV. He made his debut for HSV in a match against SC Freiburg coming in as a substitute in 66. minute. He scored his first goal only 7 minutes later by scoring a winning goal for HSV

National team

In May 2007, Iličević received his first call-up to the Croatian national under-21 team and made his international debut on 2 June 2007 in a 2-0 win against the Faroe Islands in Varaždin. In his second appearance for the team, on 6 June 2007, he scored a brace to help them to a 3-2 win against Greece in Zaprešić. He won a total of 11 international caps and scored five goals for the Croatian national under-21 team, with his last appearance coming on 9 September 2008 in a 1-1 draw against Italy in Varaždin.

On 29 September 2008, he received his first full international call-up for Croatia's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Andorra the following October, but did not feature in any of the two matches.[3]

He eventually made his full international debut on 12 October 2010, coming on as a half-time substitute for Luka Modrić in a friendly match against Norway in Zagreb, which Croatia won 2-1.[4] On 17 November 2010, he made his competitive debut in a 3-0 win at home to Malta in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying, replacing Ivan Rakitić in the 69th minute. On 9 February 2011, he scored his first goal in his third appearance as a full international, netting the final goal in a 4-2 win against the Czech Republic, in a friendly match played in Pula. He came on as substitute of Niko Kranjčar in the 64. minute in the match against Republic of Ireland.

References

External links