Ivica Banović

Football player infobox
playername= Ivica Banović


fullname = Ivica Banović
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1980|8|2
cityofbirth = Zagreb
countryofbirth = SFR Yugoslavia
height = height|meters=1.86
currentclub = SC Freiburg
clubnumber = 20
position = Midfielder
youthyears = 1986-1997
youthclubs =NK Zagreb
years = 1997–2000
2000–2004
2004–2007
2007–
clubs = NK Zagreb
SV Werder Bremen
1. FC Nuremberg
SC Freiburg
caps(goals) = 62 0(9)
52 0(2)
70 (10)
33 0(1)
nationalyears = 1999–2000
2004–
nationalteam = Croatia U-21
Croatia
nationalcaps(goals) =0? 0(?)
02 0(0)
pcupdate = May 18, 2008
ntupdate = August 13, 2006

Ivica Banović (born August 2 1980 in Zagreb) is a Croatian football midfielder who plays for German club SC Freiburg.

Club career

Banović began his career at NK Zagreb at the age of six and entered the club's first team in the summer of 1997. After three professional seasons with NK Zagreb, Banović went on to move to German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in the summer of 2000 and continued to play for the club in the following four seasons. He was more or less a regular player in his first three seasons with the club and made a total of 49 Bundesliga appearances, scoring two goals for the club in the league. However, he lost his place in the first team during the 2003-04 season and was eventually sent to the club's reserve squad playing in the Regionalliga Nord in the spring of 2004, scoring five goals in five appearances in the league. He only made three Bundesliga appearances that season.

Banović went on to move to Werder Bremen's Bundesliga rivals 1. FC Nuremberg in the summer of 2004 and made a good start to the 2004-05 Bundesliga season by scoring two goals in the opening two matches, subsequently continuing to play regularly for the club during the league season. In December 2004, he scored the crucial equaliser for the club in a 2-2 draw against their Bavarian rivals FC Bayern Munich. He made 22 Bundesliga appearances for Nuremberg in his first season with the club and went on to make another 23 league appearances the following season, scoring a total of five Bundesliga goals in these two seasons.

He made a good start to the 2006-07 Bundesliga season with Nuremberg, assisting in all three goals for a 3-0 away victory over VfB Stuttgart in the club's opening match of the season. He was a starting player in the opening three matches of the season, but later lost his place in the starting eleven and regularly played as a substitute until the end of the season. His tally of five goals in 25 appearances that season was nevertheless the most successful in his Bundesliga career. He also helped Nuremberg win the 2006-07 German Cup, making four appearances and scoring the winner against BV Cloppenburg in the first round.

The day after the end of the 2006-07 Bundesliga season, it was confirmed that Banović will move to 2nd Bundesliga side SC Freiburg on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract with Nuremberg at the end of June 2007. He signed a two-year contract with the club. [cite web | url = http://www.kicker.de/fussball/2bundesliga/startseite/artikel/365859?view=print | title = SC holt Banovic | language= German | accessdate = 2008-03-17 | date = 2007-05-25 | publisher = kicker.de] His final appearance for Nuremberg came on May 26, 2007 in the German Cup final against VfB Stuttgart, in which he came off the bench for the final six minutes of extra time.

Banović quickly established himself as a regular at Freiburg, making his competitive debut against FC Villingen in the first round of the German Cup. He made his league debut against VfL Osnabrück in the club's first league match of the season and subsequently only missed one league match during the entire season due to a yellow-card suspension. In only his second appearance in the 2nd Bundesliga, he scored his first and only league goal of the season in Freiburg's 1-0 win over SC Paderborn 07.

International career

While at NK Zagreb, Banović also played for the Croatian under-18 and under-21 national teams. His first appearance in an international youth tournament came at the 1998 European Under-18 Championship in Cyprus, where the team reached the third place after beating Portugal in penalty shootout. In the spring of 1999, he was part of the Croatian squad at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria, where he appeared as a second-half substitute in all four matches before the team was eliminated by Brazil in the round of 16, also scoring one goal in Croatia's 5-1 victory over Kazakhstan in their second group match. He also played for the Croatian under-21 team in the final tournament of the UEFA U-21 Championship 2000 in Slovakia.

Banović won his first senior international cap for Croatia in their friendly match against Israel on August 18, 2004 in Varaždin. He also made one appearance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying, playing as a substitute in the final 14 minutes of their third qualifying match, against Bulgaria in Zagreb. After that, he was no longer part of the national team.

External links

* [http://www.kicker.de/fussball/bundesliga/vereine/spielersteckbrief/object/25274/ Profile by Kicker] de icon
* [http://www.weltfussball.de/spieler_profil.php?id=257 Profile by Weltfussball] de icon

References