Alen Bokšić

Alen Bokšić

Personal information
Position(s)	Striker

Alen Bokšić [ˈalɛn ˈbɔkʃitɕ] (born January 21, 1970) is a former football striker from Croatia.

Bokšić was born in Makarska and started his career in the club Zmaj from Makarska. As a young player he moved to Hajduk Split and was introduced into the first team (1987–91). With Hajduk, he won the Yugoslav League Cup in 1987 and 1991. In 174 games for Hajduk, he scored 60 goals.

Bokšić scored in the 1991 Yugoslavian Cup final against Red Star Belgrade for what proved to be the winning goal. He moved to AS Cannes in France (1991–92), but was plagued by injuries and played only one game the entire season. In his only full season with Olympique Marseille (1992–93), he led the Ligue 1 goal scoring charts with 23, won the French league title and the European Champions League. He was voted second for the 1993 European Footballer of the Year, behind winner Roberto Baggio.

Bokšić also played in Italy for Lazio (1993–96 and 1997–2000) and Juventus (1996–97). In 1997, he won the Italian league title with Juventus. After his return to Lazio, he won the Italian cup in 1998, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999, and Italian league title and cup in 2000. Bokšić finished his career in England with Middlesbrough (2000–03). After coming to Boro, Bokšić had a weekly salary of £62,000, and was the highest paid footballer in England. His late career was ravaged by injuries, and he retired from football in 2003.

Twenty year old Bokšić was a member of the Yugoslav national squad during World Cup 1990, but coach Ivica Osim did not give him a single minute of action, preferring the more experienced Zlatko Vujović and Darko Pančev for places upfront.

For the Croatian national team, Bokšić was capped 40 times, scoring 10 goals. He played for his country at Euro 96. He missed Croatia's surprising third place run in the 1998 FIFA World Cup due to injury. This was a devastating blow for the Croatian team as they could not pair him together with Davor Suker to form arguably the most potent striking force in the tournament. He finally made his World Cup playing debut in the 2002 World Cup at the age of 32.

References

• Nogometni leksikon (2004, in Croatian)