Josip Balatinac

Josip Balatinac
Personal information
Date of birth7 March 1979
Place of birthKneževo, Popovac, SFR Yugoslavia
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing positionMidfielder
Club information
Current team
NK Mladost Draž
Youth career
Osijek
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1997–2006Osijek202(29)
2006–2007Hajduk Split16(3)
2008Hrvatski Dragovoljac7(0)
2008–2009Baranja Belje
2009-2010Šokadija Duboševica
2010-Mladost Draž
National team
1998Croatia U195(0)
1999Croatia U201(0)
1998–2000Croatia U217(0)
2006Croatia1(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:28, 16 December 2009 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 21:28, 16 december 2009 (UTC)

Josip Balatinac (born 7 March 1979) is a Croatian football midfielder. He made one appearance for the Croatia national football team, in a friendly against South Korea at the 2006 Carlsberg Cup tournament on 29 January 2006. He has also represented his country at under-21 and under-19 levels.

Career

In 1997 Balatinac joined NK Osijek coming through youth ranks of famous Osijek youth football academy. He spent nine seasons with NK Osijek where he gradually became one of best players, earning a national team cap. In the summer of 2006 Balatinac was supposed to join SV Pasching. It's still unclear if Balatinac signed the contract and then went AWOL or if he never even signed for Austrian team. However, Balatinac came back from Austria after few days claiming he's homesick and continue to prepare for new season with NK Osijek. Few weeks afterwards he signed with Hajduk Split. The club's financial problems lead to the club owing Balatinac several wages, and he filed for termination of his contract in early 2007,[1] which was approved in the November of that year. He signed with the Druga HNL side NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac where he spent the rest of the 2007/08 season. Subsequently he all but retired for professional football, playing for a string of lower-tier clubs in his native region of Baranja, settling in Draž, where he plays for the local team, NK Mladost.[2]

References

External links