Davor Šuker



Davor Šuker IPA: [dâʋɔr ʃǔːkɛr ], (born 1 January 1968 in Osijek) is a retired Croatian footballer and current president of Croatian Football Federation (as of July 2012) [2 ]. He played as a striker for a number of European clubs as well as the Croatian national team, where he is the all-time top goal scorer with 45 goals.

Šuker was born in Osijek. His parents came there from village of Lištani in Livno municipality. Šuker began his footballing career in his hometown, playing for the local first division team Osijek as a 16-year-old. During his final season there, he became the league's top goal scorer. He signed for a bigger club, Dinamo Zagreb in 1989. The war in Croatia halted a promising season for the 21-year-old, eventually resulting in Šuker's move to Sevilla in 1991.

In La Liga Šuker was highly regarded, showing consistent form with Seville and being amongst the top goal scorers for consecutive seasons. He signed with Real Madrid 5 years later, and was again amongst the league's top scorers, which helped Madrid claim the La Liga title, the Supercup trophy and win the Champions League during his tenure there.

His move to Arsenal turned out to be a disappointment, as he managed to only rarely find his goal scoring form, but distinguished himself in the Gunners' UEFA Cup final berth in 2000. He concluded his career with shorter spells at West Ham United and in Germany where he played for 1860 Munich.

The crowning moment of Šuker's career was the 1998 World Cup in France, where he became the top goal scorer and won the Golden Boot by scoring 6 goals in 7 matches and also won Silver Ball 1998 at France as second best player of tournament (behind Ronaldo). His goal-scoring prowess proved instrumental as the Croatians surprisingly took third place, upsetting a strong Netherlands side, in their debut World Cup as an independent country. Croatia did not lose a single match in which Šuker scored prior to the semifinal loss to eventual champions France.

Named as Croatia's Golden Player for the UEFA 2003 Jubilee anniversary, he is also on the FIFA 100 list of the top 125 greatest footballers and is the only Croatian on the list.&nbsp