Davor Šuker is one of Croatia’s greatest players of all time and became a true icon in the world of football. The former striker put his boots on the shelf in 2002 and since then has, among other things, been president of the Croatian Football Association. It happened later.
Davor Šuker was born and raised in Osijek, Yugoslavia, and that’s where he took his very first steps as a soccer player. He was one of club Osijek’s biggest talents and already as an 18-year-old broke into the club’s A team in 1984.
Incomparable career
Šuker played there for a full five seasons before being signed by the Croatian big club Dinamo Zagreb, which became a small intermediate step before his big adventure in the very biggest European clubs started.
The Croat represented, among others, Sevilla, Real Madrid and Arsenal, where he was a real notorious goalscorer and, for example, scored 76 goals in 153 games in the first-mentioned club. However, it was in the Croatian national team that Šuker would celebrate his greatest success.
Sure, he has a La Liga title, the Spanish Super Cup and a Champions League title to his credit, but these achievements hardly compare to what his Croatia achieved during the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Davor Šuker was the main contributor to Croatia, then, reaching its highest ever milestone with a bronze. He was absolutely phenomenal throughout the tournament and was the great hero of the whole nation when he won the championship shooting league and shot the bronze for Croatia.
Became football president
Davor Šuker played his very last competitive game in the 2002/03 season with 1860 Munich in the Bundesliga, which became the last club the Croatian represented.
In 2012, Davor Šuker was given the role of president of the Croatian Football Association. A role he had all the way until last summer when he had to leave his assignment. The former striker also celebrated great success here as Croatia reached all the way to a World Cup final in 2018 under his leadership, and the silverware is now the country’s greatest football achievement of all time.
After his resignation from the Croatian Football Association, Davor Šuker has kept to the silence. But he runs, among other things, a football academy in Zagreb and in other Croatian cities.
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