Davor Šuker (Croatian pronunciation: ( listen); born 1 January 1968) is a retired Croatian footballer and the current president of the Croatian Football Federation, a position he has held since July 2012. He played as a striker for a number of European clubs as well as for the Croatia national team, where he is the all-time top scorer with 45 goals.
Šuker was born in Osijek. He began his footballing career in his hometown, playing for the local first division team NK Osijek as a 16-year-old. During his final season there, he became the league's top goal scorer. He signed for a bigger club, Dinamo Zagreb in 1989. The war in Croatia halted a promising season for the 21-year-old, eventually resulting in Šuker's move to Sevilla in 1991.
In La Liga, Šuker was highly regarded, showing consistent form with Sevilla and being amongst the top goal scorers for consecutive seasons. He signed with Real Madrid five years later, and was again amongst the league's top scorers, which helped Madrid claim the Liga title, the Supercup trophy and win the UEFA Champions League during his tenure there.
His move to Arsenal turned out to be a disappointment, as he managed to only rarely find his goal scoring form, but distinguished himself in the Gunners' UEFA Cup final berth in 2000. He concluded his career with shorter spells at West Ham United and in Germany, where he played for 1860 Munich.
The crowning moment of Šuker's career was the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, where he became the top goal scorer and won the Golden Boot by scoring six goals in seven matches and also won Silver Ball as the second-best player of tournament, behind Ronaldo. His goal-scoring prowess proved instrumental as the Croatians surprisingly took third place, upsetting a strong Germany side, in their debut World Cup as an independent country. Croatia did not lose a single match in which Šuker scored prior to the semi-final loss to eventual champions France.
Named as Croatia's Golden Player for the UEFA 2003 Jubilee anniversary, he came third in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 1998, and is also on the FIFA 100 list of the top 125 greatest footballers, the only Croatian on the list.
FIFA Club World Cup 1998 Real Madrid | FIFA World Cup Golden Boot 1998 Croatia | UEFA Champions League 1997-1998 Real Madrid | Spanish Supercopa de Espana 1997 Real Madrid |
Spanish La Liga 1996-1997 Sevilla |
UEFA European Championships Player Of The Match 1996-06-16 |
1984-1989 |
1989-1991 |
1991-1996 |
1996-1999 |
1999-2000 |
2000-2001 |
2001-2003 |