Ivica Olić [ˈiʋitsa ˈɔːlitɕ] (born September 14, 1979) is a Croatian football player who plays for Hamburger SV.

Club Career

Olić was born and raised in the village of Davor near Nova Gradiska, Croatia. He started playing football for the local club Marsonia in 1996, and spent two good seasons there before he was acquired by Hertha Berlin in 1998. He did not see much play there and returned home to Marsonia the following year.

After another successful season at Marsonia (in the 2000/01 season he scored 17 goals in 29 games), in 2001 he moved to NK Zagreb where he would score 21 goals in 28 appearances and help his team to win the league. The following season he moved to Dinamo Zagreb, where he scored 16 goals in 27 games, and became the best striker of the Croatian First League.

In 2003, he was acquired by CSKA. His form rose gradually, and in the 2005 season he contributed 10 goals in twice as many games.

In January 2007 he moved to Hamburger SV, playing his first Bundesliga game with them against Energie Cottbus on January 31.^[1] He was signed because Hamburg were in deep trouble, finishing in the relegation zone before the winter break. It worked out in the end and Hamburg finished seventh, which even acquired them an Intertoto Cup place. He scored two goals in the last match in the 2006-07 Bundesliga season against Alemannia Aachen in a 4-0 win. In October 2007 Olić scored a hat-trick in the Bundesliga match against VfB Stuttgart, which Hamburg won 4:1. He was the first player in the club's history to score three successive goals in one half.

Croatian National Team

Olić was part of the Croatian national team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup where he played in two games and scored one goal, but an important one against Italy which ended 2-1 for Croatia. Shortly after scoring, Olic revealed a picture of his newly born child at the time under his jersey. He was remembered being unable to put his jersey back on, as it was tangled in excitement during his celebration.

He also played three games for Croatia in Euro 2004, and two games in 2006 FIFA World Cup.

In September 2006 he was dropped from Croatian squad for a qualifying match for one game due to a late-night partying binge together with Darijo Srna and Boško Balaban.

Ivica is often praised by the fans for his hard work with large amounts of stamina efforts on the pitch, with ability to draw 2 to 3 defenders on him.

He was named man of the match in the match at Wembley in which Croatia defeated England 2:3. He scored the second goal in the match, which gave Croatia a two goal lead against England, who couldn't recover and were knocked out of the European Cup held in 2008.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	17 April 2002	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1 – 0	2 – 0	Friendly
02.	8 June 2002	Kashima Stadium, Kashima, Japan	Italy	1 – 1	1 – 2	2002 World Cup
03.	30 April 2003	Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden	Sweden	0 – 1	2 – 1	Friendly
04.	11 October 2003	Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb, Croatia	Bulgaria	1 – 0	1 – 0	2004 Euro Qualifying
05.	29 May 2004	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia	Slovakia	1 – 0	1 – 0	Friendly
06.	5 June 2004	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	0 – 2	1 – 2	Friendly
07.	16 October 2007	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia	Slovakia	1 – 0	3 – 0	Friendly
08.	16 October 2007	Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka, Croatia	Slovakia	3 – 0	3 – 0	Friendly
09.	21 November 2007	Wembley Stadium, London, England	England	0 – 2	2 – 3	2008 Euro Qualifying

References