Marcelo Brozović

Marcelo Brozović

Brozović in 2015
Personal information
Full name	Marcelo Brozović[1]
Date of birth	(1992-11-16) 16 November 1992
Place of birth	Zagreb, Croatia
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[2]
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Inter Milan
Number	77
Youth career
2002–2010	Hrvatski Dragovoljac
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2010–2011	Hrvatski Dragovoljac	22	(1)
2011–2012	Lokomotiva	33	(5)
2012–2015	Dinamo Zagreb	64	(9)
2015–	Inter Milan	54	(6)
National team‡
2009–2010	Croatia U18	4	(0)
2011	Croatia U19	1	(0)
2011–2013	Croatia U20	5	(3)
2011–2014	Croatia U21	13	(7)
2014–	Croatia	24	(6)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 November 2016. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 12 November 2016

Marcelo Brozović (born 16 November 1992) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays for Italian club Inter Milan. He is usually deployed as a box-to-box midfielder, but is considered to be a versatile midflielder who can perform well anywhere in the midfield. On the international level, Brozović plays for Croatia national team, and was part of the squad that represented his country on 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

Brozović was born in Zagreb, and graduated from neighbouring Hrvatski Dragovoljac's youth setup. He made his debut as a professional on 24 July 2010, starting and playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–4 loss against Dinamo Zagreb. Brozović scored his first goal on 18 March of the following year, the winner against Karlovac.

Lokomotiva

In July 2011, he signed with Lokomotiva, after Dragovoljac's relegation.^[3] He appeared in 27 league matches in his first campaign, scoring four times as Lokomotiva achieved a comfortable mid-table position.

Dinamo Zagreb

In August 2012, Brozović signed a seven-year contract with Dinamo Zagreb, as a replacement for Hamburger SV-bound Milan Badelj.^[4]

Inter Milan

On 24 January 2015, Brozović signed with Inter Milan on a one-and-a-half year loan deal, with a conditional obligation for Inter to buy.^[5][6] Brozović took his preferred shirt number 77, last worn at Inter by Sulley Muntari. He made his official debut with the club on 1 February 2015, playing the last 20 minutes of the 3–1 away upset of Inter against Sassuolo Calcio, becoming the 900th player to wear the Nerazzurri shirt.^[7] He scored his first Inter goal in final day in a 4–3 win over Empoli, helping Inter to end the season with a win.^[8] Brozović finished his first Inter season with 15 league appearances, 13 of them as a starter and one goal.

Brozović continued to cement his place in the starting lineup even in the second season by playing 85 minutes in team's opening league match against Atalanta at home.^[9] He scored his first league goal of the season on 23 November during the match against Frosinone at home, coming off the bench in 88th minute and netting the fourth goal of the match four minutes later, helping Inter to record its biggest win of the season.^[10] On 12 December, Brozović scored his second league goal, a screamer, and the last goal of the 4–0 away win against Udinese, celebrating the goal with his teammates with EpicBrozo signature in the process.^[11]

Only three days later, in the 2015–16 Coppa Italia's round of 16 match against Cagliari, Brozović scored the same identical goal that he scored against Udinese, helping Inter to progess in the quarter-final with a 3–0 win.^[12] On 7 February of the following year, he assisted Jeison Murillo's goal from a corner kick in the match against Hellas Verona, which finished in a 3–3 away draw.^[13] Two week later, Brozović supplied his second assist to Mauro Icardi who scored the third goal of the 3–1 home win against Sampdoria.^[14]

On 2 March, in the returning leg of Coppa Italia's semi-final against Juventus at San Siro, Brozović scored a brace, including one with penalty kick, to help Inter overturn the 3–0 defeat and equal the aggregate 3–3, which led the match into the penalty shootouts; he scored his penalty shootout attempt, but Inter lost 3–5 and eventually was eliminated from the competition.^[15][16]

International career

Brozović during Brazil and Croatia match at the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Brozović appeared with Croatia in the under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 categories. With the latter he appeared well during 2013, scoring seven goals in eight appearances.

On 31 May 2014, Brozović was included in Niko Kovač's final list for 2014 FIFA World Cup,^[17] and made his debut for the main squad on 7 June, starting in a 1–0 success against Australia at the Estádio de Pituaçu.^[18] Brozović made his World Cup debut five days later, playing the last 26 minutes in a 1–3 loss against the hosts.^[19] Since the 2014 World Cup, Brozović became a regular starter in Croatia's Euro 2016 qualifiers, playing alongside Luka Modrić and Ivan Rakitić as part of a rotating midfield triangle for Croatia. He scored his first goal for Croatia against Azerbaijan, in a 6-0 win in Osijek. His second goal of the Euro 2016 qualifiers came in March 2015 against Norway, when he gave his team a 1-0 lead with a low curving shot from 20 meters into the bottom right corner.^[20] He netted a brace for Croatia on November 12th 2016 in the World Cup qualifiers against Iceland.

Career statistics

Club

As of 16 May 2016^[21][22][23]

International

As of 12 November 2016^[24]

International goals

Scores and Results show Croatia's goal tally first

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1.	13 October 2014	Stadion Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia	Azerbaijan	4–0	6–0	UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
2.	28 March 2015	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia	Norway	1–0	5–1	UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
3.	17 November 2015	Olimp-2, Rostov-on-Don, Russia	Russia	1–2	1–3	Friendly
4.	23 March 2016	Stadion Gradski vrt, Osijek, Croatia	Israel	2–0	2–0	Friendly
5.	12 November 2016	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia	Iceland	1–0	2–0	2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification
6.	12 November 2016	Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia	Iceland	2–0	2–0	2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb

• Prva HNL: 2012–13, 2013–14
• Croatian Supercup: 2013

Notes

1. ↑ Includes cup competitions such as the Croatian Football Cup , and Coppa Italia

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marcelo Brozović.

• Inter Milan official profile
• Marcelo Brozović – UEFA competition record
• Marcelo Brozović – FIFA competition record
• Marcelo Brozović at National-Football-Teams.com
• Marcelo Brozović career statistics at Soccerbase
  
• BDFutbol profile

Croatia squads
Croatia squad – 2014 FIFA World Cup 1 Pletikosa 2 Vrsaljko 3 Pranjić 4 Perišić 5 Ćorluka 6 Lovren 7 Rakitić 8 Vukojević 9 Jelavić 10 Modrić 11 Srna (c) 12 Zelenika 13 Schildenfeld 14 Brozović 15 Badelj 16 Rebić 17 Mandžukić 18 Olić 19 Sammir 20 Kovačić 21 Vida 22 Eduardo 23 Subašić Coach: Kovač Croatia squad – UEFA Euro 2016 1 Vargić 2 Vrsaljko 3 Strinić 4 Perišić 5 Ćorluka 6 Jedvaj 7 Rakitić 8 Kovačić 9 Kramarić 10 Modrić 11 Srna (c) 12 L. Kalinić 13 Schildenfeld 14 Brozović 15 Ćorić 16 N. Kalinić 17 Mandžukić 18 Rog 19 Badelj 20 Pjaca 21 Vida 22 Čop 23 Subašić Coach: Čačić