Josip Balatinac

Josip Balatinac (born 7 March 1979) is a Croatian retired football midfielder.

Josip Balatinac
Personal information
Date of birth (1979-03-07) 7 March 1979
Place of birth Kneževo, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Osijek
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–2006 Osijek 202 (29)
2006–2007 Hajduk Split 16 (3)
2008 Hrvatski Dragovoljac 7 (0)
2008–2009 Baranja Belje
2009–2010 Šokadija Duboševica
2010–2016 Mladost Draž
International career‡
1998 Croatia U19 5 (0)
1999 Croatia U20 1 (0)
1998–2000 Croatia U21 7 (0)
2006 Croatia 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 21:28, 16 December 2009 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21:28, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Club career

In 1997 Balatinac joined NK Osijek coming through youth ranks of famous Osijek youth football academy. He spent nine seasons with NK Osijek where he gradually became one of the best players, earning a national team cap. In the summer of 2006 Balatinac was supposed to join SV Pasching. It's still unclear if Balatinac signed the contract and then went AWOL or if he never even signed for Austrian team. However, Balatinac came back from Austria after few days claiming he's homesick and continue to prepare for new season with NK Osijek. Few weeks afterwards he signed with Hajduk Split. The club's financial problems lead to the club owing Balatinac several wages, and he filed for termination of his contract in early 2007,[1] which was approved in the November of that year. He signed with the Druga HNL side NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac where he spent the rest of the 2007/08 season. Subsequently he all but retired for professional football, playing for a string of lower-tier clubs in his native region of Baranja, settling in Draž last playing for NK Mladost.[2]

International career

He made one appearance for the Croatia national football team, in a friendly against South Korea at the 2006 Carlsberg Cup tournament on 29 January 2006.[3] He has also represented his country at under-21 and under-19 levels.

References
  1. Balatinac zatražio raskid ugovora Archived 9 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine at Jutarnji List
  2. Vraća li se u redove Osijeka Josip Balatinac?! at SIB.hr
  3. "Player Database". EU-football. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
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