Ivica Mornar
Personal information
Full name Ivica Mornar
Date of birth (1974-01-12) 12 January 1974 (age 50)
Place of birth Split, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1995 Hajduk Split 79 (26)
1995–1996 Eintracht Frankfurt 19 (1)
1996–1997 Sevilla 11 (2)
1997–1998 Ourense 28 (8)
1998–2001 Standard Liège 68 (23)
2001–2004 Anderlecht 59 (24)
2004–2006 Portsmouth 10 (1)
2004–2005 → Rennes (loan) 15 (0)
Total 289 (85)
International career
1994–1995 Croatia U-21[1] 5 (1)
1994–2004 Croatia 22 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ivica Mornar (born 12 January 1974) is a Croatian retired footballer. He started as a striker, but was mostly deployed as a winger during his career.

Mornar began his career with Hajduk Split before going on to play for Eintracht Frankfurt, Sevilla, CD Ourense, Standard Liège, Anderlecht and Portsmouth.

Club career

Mornar was born in Split.

In Mornar's final season at Anderlecht, he scored a goal in a 1–1 home draw against Bayern Munich on 30 September 2003.[2]

He was offered a new two-year contract by Anderlecht, but opted to move across the English channel to Portsmouth. He moved to the Premier League at the end of January 2004 for £500,000, signing a two-and-half-year deal.

Mornar made his Pompey debut in a goalless draw at home to Wolverhampton, and looked lively. He then scored his first and only goal in the next game against Tottenham.[3] He played as a winger in most of his Portsmouth appearances.

However, Mornar failed to recreate his previous form at Portsmouth. Seemingly out of the picture at the club, he was loaned to Rennes of the French Ligue 1 for the 2004–05 season, with then Pompey manager Harry Redknapp saying that he would allow Mornar to be sold upon his return. Although it appeared that Mornar was in new boss Alain Perrin's plans for the 2005–06 campaign, he was thwarted by hamstring injuries throughout the season. Upon the return of Harry Redknapp as manager in December 2005 it looked as though Mornar's contract would be allowed to expire the next Summer. However, it transpired that there was a clause in his contract guaranteeing him a further year at the club should relegation be avoided and he remained a Portsmouth player, until September 2006 when his contract with the club was cancelled by mutual consent. This brought further complications due to the fact that Mornar could not find a club willing to sign him. Despite his unceremonious exit from Portsmouth he enjoyed his time playing there and persuaded fellow Split native Niko Kranjčar to join the club. Reportedly he offered his services[citation needed] to first league teams from Belgium, Scotland, Portugal and Japan but no team was interested, thereby forcing his retirement.

International career

Mornar made his debut for Croatia in a March 1994 friendly match away against Spain, coming on as a 46th-minute substitute for Janko Janković, but was replaced himself by Ante Miše after being on the pitch for just over half an hour. He was capped 22 times and scored one goal for his country against England.[4] Mornar represented Croatia at Euro 2004. His final international was a September 2004 World Cup qualification match against Hungary.[5]

Career statistics

Club

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Croatia League Croatian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
1990–91 Hajduk Split Yugoslav First League 2 1 0 0 – 1 0 3 1
1992 Hajduk Split Prva HNL 19 7 2 0 – – 21 7
1992–93 21 7 8 1 1 0 – 30 8
1993–94 27 8 5 1 2 2 2 1 36 12
1994–95 9 3 6 0 1 1 7 0 23 4
1995–96 1 0 – – 2 0 3 0
Germany League DFB-Pokal Other Europe Total
1995–96 Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga 19 2 0 0 – – 19 2
Spain League Copa del Rey Supercopa de España Europe Total
1996–97 Sevilla La Liga 11 2 3 0 – – 14 2
1997–98 Ourense Segunda División 28 8 3 0 – – 31 8
Belgium League Belgian Cup Super Cup Europe Total
1998–99 Standard Liège First Division 15 3 – – – 15 3
1999–00 23 8 5 0 – – 28 8
2000–01 30 12 2 0 – 2 1 34 13
2001–02 Anderlecht First Division 23 8 1 2 1 0 7 2 32 12
2002–03 20 6 2 1 – 3 0 25 7
2003–04 Anderlecht First Division 16 10 2 1 – 8 1 26 12
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
2003–04 Portsmouth Premier League 8 1 2 0 – – 10 1
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Europe Total
2004–05 Stade Rennais Ligue 1 15 0 – – – 15 0
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
2005–06 Portsmouth Premier League 2 0 – – – 2 0
Total Croatia 77 25 21 2 4 3 12 1 114 31
Germany 19 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 2
Spain 39 10 6 0 0 0 0 0 45 10
Belgium 127 47 12 4 1 0 20 4 160 55
England 10 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 12 1
France 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 0
Career total 268 78 41 6 5 3 32 5 346 92

[6]

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
01. 20 August 2003 Portman Road, Ipswich, England  England
2 − 1
3 − 1
 Friendly

Honours

Club

Hajduk Split

Sevilla

R.S.C. Anderlecht

References

  1. ^ "STATISTICS". Croatian football federation. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  2. ^ "UEFA Champions League 2003/04 - History - Anderlecht-Bayern – UEFA.com". Archived from the original on 21 September 2012.
  3. ^ "Tottenham 4-3 Portsmouth". BBC. 7 February 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  4. ^ "Beckham inspires England win". BBC. 20 August 2003. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Player Database". EU-football. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  6. ^ "I.Mornarstatistics". Soccerway. Retrieved 29 November 2018.

External links

Croatia squad – UEFA Euro 2004
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