Josip Balatinac

Josip Balatinac
Personal information
Date of birth	7 March 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Kneževo, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Osijek
Senior career*
Years	Team
1997–2006	Osijek
2006–2007	Hajduk Split
2008	Hrvatski Dragovoljac
2008–2009	Baranja Belje
2009–2010	Šokadija Duboševica
2010–2016	Mladost Draž
International career‡
1998	Croatia U19
1999	Croatia U20
1998–2000	Croatia U21
2006	Croatia
	*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)

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

Club career[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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

External links[edit]

Josip Balatinac at the Croatian Football Federation
Josip Balatinac – FIFA competition record (archived)
Josip Balatinac at FootballDatabase.eu
Josip Balatinac at National-Football-Teams.com

[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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