On This Day – 1st January
On 1st January 1968, Davor Suker was born. He is currently the President of the Croatian Football Federation but is much better known for his playing career.
After starting his playing career in his native Yugoslavia at Osijek and Dinamo Zagreb, Suker moved to Spain to join Sevilla.
Suker had appeared for the Yugoslav national team and in time, went on to play for the Croatian national team, who had started playing international football in the early 1990’s.
Suker helped Croatia qualify for the 1996 European Championships in England, their first major tournament as a new nation. He netted 12 goals in Croatia’s 10 qualifying games, creating a new record in the process.
Suker scored three goals in four games at Euro 96, including one fantastic lob over Denmark’s goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel who was one of the world’s best at the time.
His performances at Sevilla and for Croatia earned him a move to Real Madrid, playing up front with Raul and Pedrag Mijatovic.
Croatia qualified for their first World Cup and defied all the odds by reaching the semi-finals where they went on to lose to hosts and eventual winners France.
Suker would go on to finish the World Cup with the Golden Boot award.
Despite winning the Golden Boot at the World Cup, chances were limited at Real and after a fall-out with manager John Toshack, Suker decided to move on to pastures new.
His agent got in contact with a few clubs in London, West Ham and Tottenham couldn’t match Suker’s personal terms but Arsenal could.
He signed for Arsenal for the cheap price of £3.5 million at the same time that Nicolas Anelka going the other way in a separate deal.
Suker only spent one season at Arsenal and scored 11 goals in 39 appearances during his time at Highbury. He moved on to West Ham United the season after but could only hit the back three times in 11 games. The last stop in Suker’s playing career was 1860 Munich in Germany. He stayed in Munich for two seasons and scored 8 times in 30 games.
A great playing career ended with 241 goals in club football and 47 goals in 70 international games.
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