Darko Matić

Darko Matić
Personal information
Full nameDarko Matić
Date of birth26 September 1980
Place of birthDomaljevac, SFR Yugoslavia
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing positionDefensive midfielder
Club information
Current team
Beijing Guoan
Number5
Youth career
1992–2000Tennis Borussia Berlin
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
2000–2002FC Thun34(3)
2002–2003NK Orasje38(2)
20041. FC Eschborn17(2)
2004–2005NK Orašje32(4)
2005–2006FC Senec54(3)
2007–2008Tianjin Teda58(1)
2009–Beijing Guoan222(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 April 2015.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 23 August 2013

Darko Matić (born September 26, 1980) is a Bosnian-born Croatian [1] professional football player who plays as a defensive midfielder for Beijing Guoan in the Chinese Super League.[2]

Personal life

Matić claims to be fluent in nine languages with those being Chinese, German, Croatian, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Czech.[3] He has proven his fluency in Chinese with his numerous post-game interviews.

Club career

Matić left his country because of the Yugoslav Wars and would move to Germany to begin his football career with Tennis Borussia Berlin's youth team and Tennis Borussia Berlin first team . He played his first game in the first team in the second division in Germany when he was 17, under the coach Winfried Schaefer. In summer 2000 he would join second tier Swiss football club FC Thun. Matic would help FC Thun winning the promotion after 50 years. In 2002, he signed for NK Orasje in the Bosnian Premier League. In 2004, Matić joined German team 1. FC Eschborn for a short period. In the 2004–05 league season he would join once again top tier side NK Orašje and play in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, helping them finish third and win the Bosnian Cup.[4] Once again moving on to this time Slovakian football club FC Senec in the 2005–06 league season he would help them win promotion to the Slovak Superliga. He was captain of his team Senec and he got an invitation from the Slovakian Football Federation to play for the Slovakia national football team.

He transferred to Chinese Super League club Tianjin Teda in 2007 and would quickly become an integral member of the team by playing in all 28 games of the season.[5] The following season when he aided the team to a fourth place finish and had a chance to play AFC Champions League football. At the beginning of the 2009 league season Beijing Guoan were interested at his defensive abilities and signed him, this was to prove a successful signing when Matić once more quickly became an integral member of the team and aided Beijing to win their first league title.

Matić featured in most Beijing Guoan matches since joining the club including a run into the last 16 of the AFC Champions League where Guoan lost out to the eventual runners-up, Korean side FC Seoul. He scored a rare goal toward the end of 2014 in a 2-2 draw with Shandong Luneng.[6]

Matić has become a rare foreign player in Chinese football in that he has played over 200 games for Beijing Guoan by the end of the 2014 Chinese Super League season for one club and is now top of the list for appearances by a CSL foreign player.[7] He subsequently has become a legend with the fans in Beijing and has a following on Sina Weibo of over 1.3 million people.[8] Matić has expressed an interest in staying in China in the future with the possibility of getting involved in coaching.[9]

Honours

Beijing Guoan

References

  1. ↑ "北京国安2013中超名单:利马披38号 格隆改穿8号". sports.sohu.com. 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
  2. ↑ "马季奇：昨天的故事已在行囊 明天的希望在路上". Tianjin Teda FC. 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  3. ↑ http://video.sina.com.cn/p/sports/j/v/2013-02-20/235862069683.html
  4. ↑ "Bosnia-Hercegovina 2004/05". rsssf.com. 2005-09-01. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  5. ↑ "Player Darko Matić". sohu.com. 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  6. ↑ http://slide.sports.sina.com.cn/n_j/slide_2_789_69398.html?img=1311400#p=5. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_records_in_China#Top_Appearance_foreigner_players. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ http://www.weibo.com/u/3820616352?topnav=1&wvr=6&topsug=1. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3952/asia/2014/05/26/4839999/darko-matic-talks-chinese-football-development?ICID=OP. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links