Ivica Banovic

Ivica Banovic is a professional Croatian football midfielder who plays exclusively for the German club, FC Energie Cottbus. The major teams that he had been a part of include NK Zagreb, Werder Bremen, 1. FC Nuremberg, SC Freiburg, MSV Duisburg, Energie Cottbus and Croatia national football team.

His football career began with the team of NK Zagreb at the age of six, and he spent his youth career with this club till 1997. Later on, he joined the Croatian First League with the club during the following three seasons. After he made 11 domestic league appearances in his first season, he joined as a regular player with the team of Zagreb. During the first two seasons, he made a total of 51 domestic league appearances, scoring 9 domestic league goals for the club.

Ivica left Zagreb team to join Werder Bremen, a German Bundesliga team in 2000. His debut was 3-3 draw at home match held with Bayer Leverkusen on 14th October 2000. During this match, he was a substitute for Dieter Eilts in the 58th minute. Banovic made 17 Bundesliga appearances in his first season with Bremen though he didn’t score any goals. Eventually, in his third league appearance in 2001-02 season, he scored his first Bundesliga goal, netting the opening goal in Bremen’s 2-1 defeat game at 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 9th September 2001. This was his only goal of the season, finishing with total of 17 appearances. He made further 15 Bundesliga appearances during 2002-03 season, scoring his second Bundesliga goal for the team of Bremen in 2-0 victory at home to VfL Bochum held on 8th March 2003.

Further he got relegated to the reserve squad of the team and appeared in five Regionalliga Nord matches in 2004. Here, he got to score five goals in five appearances which was a hat-trick in 3-3 draw match held against SC Paderborn 07 along with a brace 4-2 victory against SG Wattenscheid 09.

Subsequently, he joined the teams of 1. FC Nuremberg, SC Freiburg, MSV Duisburg and Energie Cottbus showcasing similar professional skills. His international career graph was between 1996 and 2001, when he won 25 international caps for the team of Croatian U17, U19 and U21 teams. He scored total 3 international goals.