Igor Tudor
Personal information
Full name	Igor Tudor
Date of birth	April 16, 1978 (1978-04-16) (age 31)
Place of birth	Split, Croatia
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position	Centre back/defensive midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1998 1998–2007 2005–2006 2007–2008	Hajduk Split Juventus Siena ( Loan ) Hajduk Split	058 0(5) 110 (15) 039 0(2) 008 0(1)
National team2
1997–2006	Croatia	055 0(3)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 15, 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of December 15, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Igor Tudor (born 16 April 1978 in Split) is a former Croatian football (soccer) defender. He was considered one of Croatia's best defenders in the period between the late 1990s and mid-2000s.

Tudor announced his retirement on 22 July 2008, aged just 30, after the problems with his right ankle reappeared. He spent his last season playing for his youth club, Hajduk Split.

[edit] Football career

[edit] Early years

Tudor started his professional career at Hajduk Split in 1995 scoring 5 goals in 58 matches, being considered a revelation for his technique and ball control above the average of a defender.

[edit] Juventus

After three seasons at Hajduk, he was acquired by Juventus in 1998. During his time with Juventus, he also won the Croatian Player of the Year award in 2002.[1]

He spent six full seasons at Juve before being loaned to AC Siena in January 2005. Following Juventus' relegation to Serie B and the expiration of his loan contract with Siena, Tudor returned to Juventus, but injuries kept him off the pitch all the season. His contract expired on 30 June 2007.

[edit] Return to Croatia

Constantly struggling with injuries and mysterious bacterial infection of his ankle, Tudor was almost forced to end his career in 2007, but in June 2007 he decided to join his former club Hajduk Split after not renewing his contract with Juventus. After a highly cautious rehabilitation process his comeback was in the match against NK Zadar on 20 October 2007. This was his first official match in over 16 months. However he was unable to reach his previous form and his ankle injury problems continued. On 22 July 2008, he announced his early retirement.

[edit] International career

Tudor played for the Croatian national football team between 1997 to 2006. He also won several international caps for the Croatian under-17, under-19 and under-21 national teams between 1993 and 2000.

He made his debut in Croatia's final match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying, a 1-1 draw at Ukraine on 15 November 1997, coming on as a substitute for Aljoša Asanović in the 89th minute. He was subsequently also part of the Croatian squad that won the bronze medal at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals in France. At the tournament, he made three appearances as a substitute in the closing stages of Croatia's games against Japan, Romania and the Netherlands.

After the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he made 4 appearances in the Croatian national team's unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the UEFA Euro 2000, being in the starting line-up on all 4 occasions. He also appeared in 6 matches during Croatia's qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but missed the final tournament in South Korea and Japan due to an injury.

He returned to the national team during the qualifying stages for the UEFA Euro 2004, appearing in 7 qualifying matches. At the UEFA Euro 2004 finals in Portugal, he appeared in two of Croatia's three group matches. In his first appearance at the tournament, a 2-2 draw against France, he scored an own goal to put the French side 1-0 up midway through the first half. His second appearance at the tournament came in Croatia's final group match against England, where he scored Croatia's second goal to keep their hopes alive after they found themselves 3-1 down in the second half. However, Frank Lampard soon netted England's 4th goal and Croatia were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage.

Tudor was also included in Croatia's 23-man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany, having appeared in 8 qualifying matches for the tournament, also scoring two goals. He recorded his first goal of the qualifying when he scored Croatia's final goal in their 3-0 win at home to Malta on 30 March 2005. His second goal of the competition came in Croatia's 3-1 win at Bulgaria on 4 June 2005, when he put Croatia 2-0 up just over half an hour from time. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, he started all of Croatia's three group matches and played the full 90 minutes in two of them. However, Croatia were eliminated from the tournament after a 2-2 draw against Australia in their final group match, with Tudor receiving his second yellow card of the tournament for complaining about the penalty kick from which Australia scored a 1-1 equaliser. He made no further appearances for the national team following the tournament.

[edit] Career statistics

[2]

v • d • e Croatia squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Ladić • 2 Krpan • 3 Šerić • 4 Štimac • 5 Jurić • 6 Bilić • 7 Asanović • 8 Prosinečki • 9 Šuker • 10 Boban • 11 Marić • 12 Mrmić • 13 Stanić • 14 Soldo • 15 Tudor • 16 Kozniku • 17 Jarni • 18 Mamić • 19 Vlaović • 20 Šimić • 21 Jurčić • 22 Vasilj • Coach: Blažević

v • d • e Croatia squad – UEFA Euro 2004 1 Vasilj • 2 Tokić • 3 Šimunić • 4 Tomas • 5 Tudor • 6 Živković • 7 Rapaić • 8 Srna • 9 Pršo • 10 Niko Kovač • 11 Šokota • 12 Butina • 13 Šimić • 14 Neretljak • 15 Leko • 16 Babić • 17 Klasnić • 18 Olić • 19 Mornar • 20 Roso • 21 Robert Kovač • 22 Bjelica • 23 Didulica • Coach: Otto Barić

v • d • e Croatia squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Pletikosa • 2 Srna • 3 Šimunić • 4 R. Kovač • 5 Tudor • 6 Vranješ • 7 Šimić • 8 Babić • 9 Pršo • 10 N. Kovač • 11 Tokić • 12 Didulica • 13 Tomas • 14 Modrić • 15 I. Leko • 16 J. Leko • 17 Klasnić • 18 Olić • 19 N. Kranjčar • 20 Šerić • 21 Balaban • 22 Bošnjak • 23 Butina • Coach: Z. Kranjčar