Name: Igor Cvitanović

Nickname: "Cvita"



Country: Croatia
Club: Dinamo Zagreb
Position: *CF, SS, WF
Side: LF/LS
Age: 25-27 years (01/11/1970)

Height: 186 cm
Weight: 78 kg

Attack: 85
Defence: 38
Balance: 82
Stamina: 82
Top Speed: 86
Acceleration: 85
Response: 84
Agility: 84
Dribble Accuracy: 81
Dribble Speed: 85
Short Pass Accuracy: 80
Short Pass Speed: 80
Long Pass Accuracy: 79
Long Pass Speed: 78
Shot Accuracy: 84
Shot Power: 82
Shot Technique: 85
Free Kick Accuracy: 74
Curling: 78
Header: 83
Jump: 80
Technique: 84
Aggression: 84
Mentality: 77
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 80

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition: 7
Weak Foot Accuracy: 4
Weak Foot Frequency: 4
Consistency: 6
Growth type: Standard

CARDS:
S18 - Turning Skills
P09 - Cut Back Pass

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Positioning - Scoring

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack Minded


INFO:

Igor 'Cvita' Cvitanović is another great attacker who came to Dinamo Zagreb from NK Osijek (others being Josip Gucmirtl, Davor Šuker and Goran Vlaović). Cvita came to Zagreb in 1989 as an 18 years old talented youngster and grew to become Dinamo's All Time Scorer.

At Dinamo Zagreb in 1989, Cvitanović appear in 10 Yugoslav First League matches and scoring 5 goals for the club in the league during his first professional season. He was subsequently loaned to Varteks Varaždin during the inaugural season of the Croatian First League in the spring of 1992, making 21 appearances and scoring nine goals in the league. Than, Igor returned to Dinamo Zagreb the following summer and spend there five years. Between 1992 and 1997, Cvitanović spent five and a half seasons playing for Dinamo Zagreb and became the top goalscorer of the Croatian First League in two consecutive seasons, scoring 19 goals in 1995-96 and 20 goals in 1996-97. He also scored 27 league goals in the 1993-94 season, but was at the time overtaken in the goalscoring charts by his then teammate Goran Vlaović, who scored 29 league goals that season. Cvitanović also scored nine goals in 14 league matches in the autumn of 1997. In Dinamo Zagreb's blue jersey, Igor Cvitanović scored 304 goals and played in 503 games. In League games, Igor Cvitanović scored 119 goals for Dinamo and become club's All Time League Scorer. With his excellent goalscoring record, he is also All Time Croatian League Scorer with 126 goals.

Renowned for his acceleration and 'lethal execution' in front of the goal Igor Cvitanović has managed to score: 4 goals in one league game (1995/96) and 3 goals in one league game 6 times (three times in 1993/94 season and once in 1994/95, 1995/96, 1996/97 seasons). With Dynamo, Cvitanović spend 10 years in two spells (1989-1997 and 1999-2001) winning five Croatian Championships (1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98, 1999/00) and 3 Croatian Cups (1993/94, 1995/96, 1996/97), twice being League Top Scorer (1995/96 with 19 goals and 1996/97 with 20 goals).

Igor moved abroad to Spanish side Real Sociedad at the beginning of the year 1998. Two years prior to his move to Real Sociedad, Cvitanović had been set to join Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough in a deal worth up to a million pounds. This deal was unfortunately scuppered by his failure to attain a work permit. He failed to find much success with the Spanish side, scoring only three goals in 29 La Liga appearances before returning to Dinamo Zagreb in 1999.

In 2002, he left Dinamo Zagreb to spend a season with Japanese side Shimizu S-Pulse and then returned to Croatia to spend one more season with Osijek in 2003-04, before retiring from playing.

For Croatian National Team Igor Cvitanović played in 29 games (1992-2000) and scored 4 goals. Cvitanović made his international debut for the Croatian national team on 22 October 1992 in a friendly match against Mexico in Zagreb. On 17 August 1994, he netted a brace for Croatia in a friendly match against Israel in Tel Aviv to score his first international goals. Cvitanović was also part of the Croatian squad at the UEFA Euro 1996 finals in England, where he did not play any matches. In the qualifying stages for the tournament, he only made one appearance as a stoppage-time substitute.

He went on to make six appearances in Croatia's qualifying campaign for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but was dismissed from the team's training camp a few weeks before the beginning of the finals due to differences of opinion between him and coach Miroslav Blažević. He briefly returned to the team in the spring of 1999, making further six appearances in friendlies, with his last international match being against Korea Republic on 19 June 1999 at the Korea Cup in Seoul. He scored his last international goal in Croatia's first match at the same tournament, against Egypt on 13 June 1999.