Ivan Klasnić

Football player infobox
playername = Ivan Klasnić


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1980|1|29
cityofbirth = Hamburg
countryofbirth = West Germany
height = height|m=1.86
currentclub = FC Nantes
clubnumber = 17
position = Striker
years = 1998–2001
2001–2008
2008–
clubs = St. Pauli
Werder Bremen
FC Nantes
caps(goals) = 095 (26)
150 (49)
000 0(0)
nationalyears = 2001
2004–
nationalteam = Croatia U-21
Croatia
nationalcaps(goals) = 003 0(1)
033 (10)
pcupdate = May 11 2008
ntupdate = September 10 2008

Ivan Klasnić [IPA|ˈiʋan ˈklasnitɕ] (born January 29 1980) is a Croatian footballer who plays for Ligue 1 side FC Nantes. [ [http://www.becomeacroatiafan.com/news/item.asp?n=62338 BecomeACroatiaFan.com » News ] ] He is also a member of the Croatian national team.

Club career

t. Pauli

Klasnić was born in Hamburg, West Germany to Bosnian Croat parents from Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He started his professional career playing for local side St. Pauli and impressed as a striker in the three and half seasons he played for the club in the Second Bundesliga since becoming a professional in January 1998. Prior to his spell at St. Pauli, he has played for less known amateur sides Union 03 Hamburg and TSV Stellingen.

Werder Bremen

After helping St. Pauli to gain promotion to the first division with 10 goals scored for the club in the second division during the 2000–01 season, he made the switch to Werder Bremen in the summer of 2001 and finally made his mark in the first team in 2003 with some powerful performances in the Bundesliga. His first two seasons at the club had been marked by erratic form (he scored only three goals in 36 Bundesliga appearances) and two serious knee injuries, but he laid old ghosts to rest as he emerged a key figure in Werder Bremen's march to the Bundesliga title in the 2003-04 season, when he also won the German Cup with the club. He scored 13 goals and made another 11 for his Brazilian strike partner Ailton. His expiring contract caused a scramble for his signature at the beginning of the year before he eventually decided to stay at Bremen.

Participating in the 2004-05 UEFA Champions League season, Klasnić scored 5 goals in the two group matches against Belgian side RSC Anderlecht, including a hat-trick in the 5-1 home victory for Werder Bremen, helping the team to advance to the first knock-out stage of the competition before losing to strong French side Olympique Lyonnais, who crushed them 10-2 on aggregate.

His start in the 2006-07 season was not very successful either and he had to make seven Bundesliga appearances before finally scoring his first league goal of the season in Werder Bremen's quite disappointing 1-1 draw against underdogs Energie Cottbus at home.

On May 14, 2008 Werder Bremen confirmed that Klasnić was leaving the club.

FC Nantes

On July 8, 2008 he moved to FC Nantes where he signed a four-year contract.

International career

Klasnić turned down an invitation from Rudi Völler to play for Germany. He also turned down an invitation from Blaž Slišković to play for Bosnia and Herzegovina and chose to play for Croatia instead as he already won three caps and scored one goal for their under-21 team in the spring of 2001. He also played five times and scored one goal for the Croatian under-19 team in 1998 and 1999. By a quirk of fate, his international debut came against Germany in February 2004 in a friendly match where the Germans claimed a 2-1 victory.

Euro 2004

He was selected to play for Croatia in the Euro 2004. However, he was left on the substitutes bench throughout the tournament. Croatia did not advance past the group stage and the media often attributed that to the lack of inclusion of Klasnić, among other things.

2006 World Cup

Qualifying

In the Croatian national team, however, his performances during 2004-05 were rather modest as he only netted one goal in eight qualifying matches for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, being on target in the team's opening qualifier against Hungary in September 2004, which they easily won 3-0. In February 2005, he gave a good performance for the national team in a friendly match against Israel, scoring twice in a 3-3 draw. On the first day of March 2006, he was on target for Croatia once again as he netted their first goal in a 3-2 win over Argentina in another friendly match.

Tournament

In May 2006, he was expectedly named to the Croatian 23-man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany and displayed really good shape throughout the month as he first scored four goals in three Bundesliga matches for Werder Bremen, ending the 2005-06 Bundesliga season with a total of 15 goals scored, and then netted a brace for the national team in a World Cup preparation friendly against Austria on May 23, where they easily won 4-1. However, as the World Cup approached his good shape started to fade and he did not manage to score any further goals in the remaining three preparation matches as well as in all three group matches at the tournament, where Croatia exited the competition in the first round with two draws and a defeat.

Euro 2008

Qualifying

In the 2006-07 season, he lost his place in Croatia's starting 11 after giving two modest performances in the opening two qualifying matches for the Euro 2008, where he nevertheless managed to score one goal in the 7-0 crushing of minnows Andorra. In the following two matches, against England and Israel, he was left an unused substitute.

Tournament

At Euro 2008 Klasnić was an unused substitute in Croatia's Group B opening two games; however he started the final group match on 16 June Poland versus Croatia and scored a goal in 53rd minute thus, sending his side with a perfect group stage score into the next round. In the quarter-finals match against Turkey, Klasnić was again on the bench but was given the chance to play at the start of the first extra time in substitution of team-mate Ivica Olić. In the 118th (with just two minutes to play plus injury time), Klasnić headed an elevated pass provided by Luka Modrić and scored a crucial goal for Croatia. However Croatia was to be eliminated from the tournament as Semih Sentürk equalised with a lucky deflection just two minutes later and Turkey won the subsequent penalty shoot-out. Ivan was remembered for his efforts which saw him become the only player to ever participate at a major tournament after a kidney transplant, also scoring 2 goals during his campaign.

International goals

Illness and possible end of career

In January 2007 it was reported that Klasnić suffered kidney failure. On January 25, 2007, he received a kidney transplantation from his mother Šima, but soon it was reported that his body rejected the new organ. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/news/kind=1/newsid=501725.html UEFA.com Klasnic awaits second transplant] ]

On March 23 2007 he underwent surgery to replace the rejected kidney, this time receiving a kidney from his father. The second transplantation was a success, and Klasnić stated that his doctors told him that he "would be able to continue playing football."

However in August 2007 the doctors at Werder Bremen forbade him to train due to inability of his body to whitstand heavy physical strain.

In September 2007 doctors finally allowed Ivan Klasnić to attend full training after he was absent for about 6 months. He then joined the team and made a couple of appearances in the club's cup activities and also appeared in a few matches for the second team.

Finally, on November 24, 2007, he was selected to start for Werder for the first time since December 2006, and played 65 minutes for his team in a Bundesliga match against Energie Cottbus. Klasnić completed his comeback on December 15 2007, scoring twice in Bremen's 5-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen, playing 85 minutes.

In March 2008, Ivan was recalled to the national team after a year of absence. He became the first player ever to participate at a major tournament after a kidney transplantation when he played at Euro 2008 and scored against both Poland in the group stage and against Turkey in the quarter-finals.

References

External links

* [http://www.ivanklasnic.com Official site]
* [http://www.fussballdaten.de/spieler/klasnicivan/ Career stats at Fussballdaten.de] de icon
* [http://www.becomeacroatiafan.com/player.asp?p=2675 Become A Croatia Fan Player Profile]