Vedran Runje

Vedran Runje
Personnel
birthday	February 10, 1976
place of birth	Sinj ,  SFR Yugoslavia
size	185 cm
position	goalkeeper
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1993-1995	HNK Trogir	70 (0)
1996-1998	Hajduk Split	23 (0)
1998-2001	Standard Liege	96 (0)
2001-2004	Olympique Marseille	92 (0)
2004-2006	Standard Liege	68 (0)
2006-2007	Beşiktaş Istanbul	32 (0)
2007-2011	RC Lens	133 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1994	Croatia U18	1 (0)
1993	Croatia U-19	1 (0)
1995	Croatia U-20	1 (0)
1996	Croatia U-21	5 (0)
2006-2011	Croatia	22 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Vedran Runje (born February 10, 1976 in Sinj ) is a former Croatian football goalkeeper.

Career

Runje began his career in 1996 at Hajduk Split , but was unable to get a regular place because the Croatian national team goalkeeper Tonči Gabrić and the younger Stipe Pletikosa were preferred to him. Therefore, he left Hajduk Split and moved to the Belgian club Standard Liège .

Until 2001 he played for Standard Liège. There he was also twice "Goalkeeper of the Year in the Belgian Jupiler League " in 1999 and 2001. He then moved to France to Olympique Marseille . There he was used as a regular goalkeeper and first received a two and a half year contract. He played a big part in helping Marseille qualify for the Champions League for the 2003/04 season . During the group stage, he played 5 out of 6 games. He was first choice in Marseille until December 2003, when Fabien Barthez moved to Olympique Marseille in January . Since then he has not played in the league or in a European competition.

In summer 2004 Runje returned to Standard Liège. During his second time at Standard, he was again awarded the title of "Goalkeeper of the Year in the Belgian Jupiler League " in 2006 . In the summer of 2006 he moved to the Turkish top club Beşiktaş Istanbul . At Beşiktaş he was a regular goalkeeper, where he made 32 games in the Süper Lig and 6 games in the UEFA Cup .

In the summer of 2007 he left Beşiktaş Istanbul and moved back to France , but this time to RC Lens . Although he made all 38 games in Ligue 1 and 6 games in the UEFA Cup , he couldn't prevent RC Lens from relegating to Ligue 2 as 18th at the end of the season .

Despite rumors that Runje would leave RC Lens in the event of relegation, he decided to stay with Lens. After all, at the end of the season celebrated their promotion back to Ligue 1 and made a significant contribution to the fact that the RC Lens only played in Ligue 2 for one year.

National team

When Slaven Bilić took up his post as the national coach of the Croatian national soccer team , Vedran Runje became the second national goalkeeper behind his former teammate Stipe Pletikosa . He made his first international match to qualify for the European Championship 2008 in November 2006 against Israel , which Croatia won 4-3. In its second international match in qualifying, Croatia beat the Andorra national team 7-0 in September 2007 . He played two friendlies in the same year, against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovakia .

With good games in goal, he was nominated as the second goalkeeper for the European Football Championship 2008 in Austria and Switzerland . There he played the third and last group game of the Croatians against Poland , which Croatia won 1-0. But Runje only played because Croatia had already qualified after defeating the national teams of Austria and Germany . In the course of 2008 he only had one international appearance in the friendly against Slovenia , where he came on after 45 minutes for Stipe Pletikosa .

In June 2009 he was then a goalkeeper after Stipe Pletikosa lost his regular place at his club Spartak Moscow . He made his first game as a regular goalkeeper in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in the home game against Ukraine , which ended in a 2-2 draw. On September 5, 2009 in the qualifier against Belarus , he showed several good saves and was voted player of the game. A few days later against England he also showed some good saves, but could not prevent the devastating 5-1 victory for the English. He was involved in the 5th goal of the English after he failed to clear a back pass and Wayne Rooney was free in front of his goal.

titles and achievements

• Goalkeeper of the year in the Belgian Jupiler League : 1999, 2001, 2006
• Turkish cup winner 2006/07
• Turkish Super Cup winner 2006.

Web links

• Vedran Runje in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Vedran Runje in the database of weltfussball.de
• Overview of international matches on hns-cff.hr