Ivica Vastić
Personal information
Full name	Ivica Vastić
Date of birth	September 29, 1969 (1969-09-29) (age 38)
Place of birth	Split, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Midfielder, Striker
Club information
Current club	LASK Linz
Youth clubs
	GOŠK Adriachem
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993 1994 1994–2002 2002–03 2003–05 2005–	RNK Split First Vienna VSE St. Pölten Admira Wacker Mödling MSV Duisburg Sturm Graz Nagoya Grampus Eight Austria Wien LASK Linz	010 00(0) 250 (124) 027 0(13) 067 0(14) 094 0(55)
National team2
1996–	Austria	049 0(13)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 26 April 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 30 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Ivica Vastić (born September 29, 1969) is a Croatian-born Austrian football midfielder, formerly a striker, who currently plays for LASK Linz.

Playing career

Club

Born in Split, Vastić started to play for local clubs Jugovinil (today GOŠK Adriachem) and RNK Split before moving to Austria and joining First Vienna FC in 1991. He subsequently also played for VSE St. Pölten and Admira Wacker Mödling in Austria, and also had a short spell with German Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg, where he only made 10 league appearances without scoring a goal.

His most notable spell was with Sturm Graz between 1994 and 2002, during which he helped the club winning the Austrian Bundesliga two consecutive times in 1998 and 1999, as well as winning the Austrian Cup in 1996, 1997 and 1999. With the club, he also played in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 seasons of the competition.

He left Sturm for a one-season spell with Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight, after which he returned to Austria to spend two seasons with Austria Wien before joining his current club, LASK Linz, in the summer of 2005. He performed well for LASK in the Erste Liga, the Austrian second division, and was the top goalscorer of the league in two consecutive seasons, scoring a total of 42 goals in 62 league appearances between 2005 and 2007. After helping LASK winning promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga in 2007, he went on to help the club finish sixth in the 2007/2008 Austrian Bundesliga season and himself finished the season as the club's top goalscorer in the league, having netted 13 goals in 32 appearances.

Vastić won the Austrian Footballer of the Year award in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2007. During his time with Sturm Graz, he was the top goalscorer of the Austrian Bundesliga two times, in 1996 and 2000.

International

Vastić became an Austrian national in 1996 and subsequently started to play for the Austrian national team. His first appearance at a major tournament with Austria was at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals in France, where he appeared in all of the team's three group matches and scored a last-minute equaliser in their second match at the tournament, a 1–1 draw against Chile. The Austrians were, however, eliminated from the tournament in the first round after recording two draws and one defeat. Until 2005, Vastić won a total of 46 caps and scored 12 goals as an Austrian international.

On 24 April 2008, Vastić was surprisingly added to Austria's preliminary squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland in June. His last appearance for the national team prior to the call-up was more than two and a half years ago, on 17 August 2005 in their 2–2 draw in a friendly match against Scotland.^[1] He then made his international comeback, winning his 47th cap, as a substitute in Austria's friendly match against Nigeria on 27 May 2008 and was eventually added to their final 23-man squad for the Euro 2008 finals, where he is the oldest player.^[2] In Austria's next friendly match three days later, he scored the team's fourth goal in their 5–1 victory over Malta.

Vastić made his Euro 2008 bow in the 1–0 defeat to his native Croatia, replacing Jürgen Säumel in the 61st minute. ^[3]

References

Awards
Preceded by Heimo Pfeifenberger	Austrian Footballer of the Year 1995	Succeeded by Michael Konsel
Preceded by Toni Polster	Austrian Footballer of the Year 1998 – 1999	Succeeded by Radosław Gilewicz
Preceded by Alexander Zickler	Austrian Footballer of the Year 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent