- Mirko Grabovac
-
Mirko Grabovac Personal information Full name Mirko Grabovac Date of birth 19 September 1971 Place of birth Stobreč, Yugoslavia Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Playing position Striker Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1993-1995 Primorac 1929 4 (0) 1995-1996 Cibalia Vinkovci 16 (2) 1996-1997 Zadarkomerc Zadar 11 (1) 1997-1999 Primorac 1929 33 (10) 1999-2003 Singapore Armed Forces FC 137 (143) 2004-2007 Tampines Rovers 100 (83) 2008 Sengkang Punggol 2 (0) National team‡ 2001-2008 Singapore 12 (0) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 May 2009.
† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 24 May 2009Mirko Grabovac (born 19 September 1971 in Stobreč, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Croatian-born Singaporean former professional football player and coach. He had changed his nationality to Singaporean in 2002 in order to play for the Singapore national football team.
Contents
Football career
Grabovac was the top scorer in Singapore's S.League in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 while playing for the Singapore Armed Forces FC (SAFFC), and again in 2005 playing for Tampines Rovers. He was named the S.League's Player of the Year in 2000.
With SAFFC, he scored a total of 150 S.League goals in five seasons along with seven goals in Asian competitions.
In 2007, he scored his 240th S.League goals in the RHB Singapore Cup semi-final against Bangkok University to overtake Egmar Goncalves as the all-time S.League top goalscorer.
A year later, Grabovac was hired by Sengkang Punggol to play as a striker as well as double up as the assistant coach under head coach Saswadimata Dasuki. However, he was unable to pass the mandatory beep test twice, and served as caretaker coach for the Dolphins for a short period, starting with a 1-0 win over Gombak United which was Sengkang's second victory of the season.
Grabovac stepped down two months later as Fandi Ahmad was put in charge of the squad, and the Croatian decided to leave Singapore on 5 October 2008 to rejoin his family in his native Croatia renouncing his citizenship as well.
Honours
Club
Singapore Armed Forces
- S.League: 2000,2002
- Singapore Cup: 1999
Tampines Rovers
- S.League: 2004,2005
- Singapore Cup: 2004,2006
- ASEAN Club Championship:2005
Individual
- S.League Top Scorer Award: 1999,2000,2001,2002,2005
- S.League Player of the Year: 2000
- S.League Player of Decade
- 244 S.League Goals
External links
- Mirko Grabovac at National-Football-Teams.com
- Mirko Grabovac at Playerhistory.
- Mirko Grabovac at SLeague.com
Categories:- 1971 births
- Living people
- Croatian footballers
- Singaporean footballers
- Singapore international footballers
- Association football forwards
- HNK Cibalia players
- NK Zadar players
- Prva HNL players
- Tampines Rovers FC players
- Gombak United players
- People from Split
- NK Primorac 1929 players
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.