Elvir Bolić

Elvir Bolić (born October 10, 1971 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Bosnian football (soccer) forward, the all-time leading scorer and appearance leader for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team. He was assistant manager for the Bosnia and Herzegovina National team, along side of Meho Kodro from 5 January until 17 May 2008. [cite news|url=http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=769519.html|title=Bosnia-Herzegovina sack Kodro|date=2008-05-17|accessdate=2008-07-17|publisher=UEFA.com] . Elvir Bolić is somewhat of a legend in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Loved by the fans and respected by his teammates, Bolić was always admired for his hard work on the pitch and great footballing skills. He is also known for breaking Manchester United's proud 40 year unbeaten home record in Europe when he scored for Fenerbahçe's 1-0 win on October 30, 1996. For Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolić has appeared 52 times, scoring 22 goals, both national records (as of January 2006). His first appearance came in 1996 against Greece.

Career

His career started in his hometown, Zenica, where he played for a local club, Čelik from 1988 to 1991. He was the member of Čelik's most successful youth generation ever, from which several other players emerged and later on played for the Bosnian national team. Those were former team captain Mirsad Hibić, Nermin Šabić and Senad Brkić.

During those years, Čelik struggled in the lower leagues of ex-Yugoslavia and was often forced to bring up fresh new talent from its youth system, which allowed Bolić to showcase his skills. He and a couple of his teammates earned a call-up for the ex-Yugoslavian U18 national team.

This led to Bolić being noticed by the Yugoslav powerhouse Red Star Belgrade, which brought him to their youth team in December 1991. Red Star management, led at the time by Dragan Džajić and Vladimir Cvetković, thought very highly of Bolić's talent and groomed him to take over an important midfield role. However, because of the political situation in SFR Yugoslavia at the time, young 20-year-old Bolić defected from the Yugoslav national side training camp in France in June 1992. He later informed the Red Star brass he would not be coming back to Belgrade either.

From there he went to Turkey where he became a legend and one of the best foreign players ever to appear in the Turkish Premier Super League. Bolić spent most of his club career in Turkey, where he played for Galatasaray (1992), Gaziantepspor (1993-95), Fenerbahçe (1995-2000), Istanbulspor (2003-04), and Gençlerbirligi, Malatyaspor (2004-2005). He also played for Spain's Rayo Vallecano (2000-03). In 2005-2006, he returned to Istanbulspor, but only for a season, now he's playing for NK Rijeka.

Bolić is the best player ever to put on a jersey of the Bosnian national team. Although Safet Sušić, and lots of other Bosnian football legends are clearly better than him, they have never played for the Bosnian national team, rather Yugoslavia national team, because the Bosnian national team was just formed in 1996. He scored 25 goals in 55 caps for his country.

Elvir Bolić also has Turkish citizenship.

Goals (for Fenerbahçe)

*1995/96: 26 goals
*1996/97: 24 goals
*1997/98: 6 goals
*1998/99: 6 goals
*1999/00: 11 goals

References