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Robert Jarni
	Robert Jarni
Personal information
Full name	Robert Jarni
Date of birth	26 October 1968 (age 41)
Place of birth	Čakovec, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.80 m
Playing position	Left-Back/Left-Winger
Youth career
	MTČ Čakovec
Senior career1
National team
Teams managed
2007–2008	Hajduk Split
	1 Senior club appearances and goals; counted for the domestic league only.; * Appearances (Goals)

Robert Jarni (born 26 October 1968) is a Croatian former footballer who played left winger or wingback.

He was a regular in the Croatian national team throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. This allowed him to become the team's all-time most-capped player with 81 caps, although the record he held for four years following his retirement was by now surpassed by Dario Šimić, who won his 82nd cap in June 2006.

The crowning moment of his career was the 1998 World Cup in France, where he played a significant part in the Croatian team that surprisingly won the bronze medals, becoming the first debut team to reach the World Cup semi-finals since Portugal in 1966. Jarni also scored the first goal in Croatia's 3-0 victory over highly favoured Germany in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

[edit] Career in football

[edit] Club career

[edit] In Croatia

Jarni was born in Čakovec and started to play football in the mid-1980s at local club MTČ, which is now known as NK Čakovec. In June 1985, he was spotted by Hajduk Split while playing for MTČ in a cup match in Split and started his professional career by joining the club in February 1986.

[edit] In Italy

He played for Hajduk until 1991, before moving to his first foreign club, AS Bari from Italy. After two seasons at Bari, he moved to Torino in 1993, subsequently playing one season with them before leaving for local rivals Juventus in 1994.

[edit] In Spain

After one season with Juve, he left Italy and signed with Spanish side Real Betis for the 1995-96 season. He played regularly for Betis in the Spanish Primera over the following three seasons and also scored 19 league goals for the club, more than at any other club in his career.

In 1998, Jarni initially moved to English side Coventry City, signing for £2.6m from Real Betis. However, when Real Madrid decided they wanted the player, they successfully bought him from Coventry for £3.35m with Jarni having made no appearances whatsoever. Some believe this was a joint Coventry City and Real Madrid tactic, as Betis refused to sell him to the Madrid club.

At Real Madrid, Jarni spent only one season, making 27 Primera appearances and scoring one goal. However, the season with Real Madrid was only partly successful for him personally as he often received little playing time as a second-half substitute. One of his highlights at Real Madrid was their third UEFA Champions League group-stage match against SK Sturm Graz, where he scored two goals in his team's 6-1 victory.

He left Real Madrid for Spanish second-division side UD Las Palmas in 1999, managing promotion to Primera with the club for the 2000-01 season, which saw him making another 26 Primera appearances and scoring two goals in the league.

[edit] In Greece

For the 2001-02 season, he moved to Greek side Panathinaikos, where never established himself in the team and only made five domestic-league appearances as well as his last three UEFA Champions League appearances in early 2002. In June 2002, he was released from his contract and retired from professional football at the age of 34.

[edit] International career

As a youngster, Jarni was selected for the former Yugoslavia U-21s. He and fellow Croatian internationals Davor Šuker, Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinečki and Igor Štimac were in the squad that won the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship in Chile.

Jarni started his senior international career with the former Yugoslavia national team in 1990, subsequently winning seven international caps and scoring one goal. He also made his World Cup debut with the team, playing the entire second half of their second group match against Colombia at the 1990 finals in Italy, which they won 1-0.

In December 1990, he went on to make his international debut for then newly founded Croatian national team in a friendly match against Romania. He subsequently became a regular in the team and made his major-tournament debut with them at the 1996 European Championship in England, where he appeared in all four matches prior to the team's elimination to eventual champions Germany in the quarter-finals.

Jarni continued to play regularly for the Croatian team in the following years and was named to their 22-man squad for their first World Cup appearance at the 1998 finals in France, where they surprisingly got all the way to the semi-finals and finished third in the end. At the tournament, he played over 90 minutes in all of Croatia's seven matches and also managed to score his only international goal there, netting the opening goal in Croatia's surprising victory over Germany in the last quarter-final on 4 July 1998 in Lyon. In the final minute of the first-half three-minute stoppage time, Jarni ran onto Mario Stanić's pass at about 20 yards from goal and sent a strong left-footed shot past Germany keeper Andreas Köpke, who could not stretch his arm enough to get to the ball. Although it was his only goal for Croatia, Jarni participated in numerous goals as one the best assist-makers in the Croatian team at his time, since he was a fast runner who could quickly transfer the ball through the left flank and send high crosses into the box.

After the 1998 World Cup, Jarni continued to play regularly for Croatia over the next four years and retired from both international and club football after their disappointing group-stage elimination at the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. At the 2002 World Cup, Jarni appeared for Croatia in all of their three group matches and thus became the only player to appear in all of the team's 10 matches in their first two World Cup appearances.

In twelve years of playing for the Croatian national team, Jarni won a total of 81 international caps and was the team's all-time cap leader before Dario Šimić surpassed his record in 2006 World Cup match against Japan on 18 June 2006.

[edit] Career in futsal

Following his retirement from professional football, Jarni went on to play futsal for Croatian club MNK Split, spending several seasons with the club. He also won two international caps and scored two goals for the Croatian national futsal team in November 2003 during their qualifying campaign for the Futsal World Cup.

[edit] Other activities

In association with Astrea, a sportswear brand based near Čakovec, Jarni's hometown, he started his own line of sportswear under the brand name Jarni. The line includes various pieces of sportswear such as football kits, polo shirts and tracksuits, and became quite popular among football and handball clubs in the north Croatian region of Međimurje. For some seasons, Jarni was also the kit supplier of NK Međimurje, a Čakovec-based football club competing in the Croatian First League.

Jarni also made several appearances as a pundit on Croatian commercial TV station RTL Televizija during their live broadcasts of various international football matches, mostly the away matches of the Croatian national team that were regularly broadcast by the station between 2004 and 2007. Since 2008, however, all of the national team's matches are again broadcast by Croatia's public broadcaster HRT.

[edit] Coaching career

Jarni started his coaching career in professional football as assistant manager to Sergije Krešić at Hajduk Split in late August 2007. However, after Krešić's resignation on 26 October 2007, Jarni was appointed head coach at the club and was initially presented as caretaker manager until the end of the first part of the Croatian league season in December. His first match as head coach at Hajduk Split was their 1-0 away victory at NK Inter Zaprešić on 27 October 2007. He went on to sign a one-year contract with the club after the match.^[1] He was sacked one week after the end of 2007/08 season.

[edit] References

^ "Jarni potvrđen kao prvi trener Hajduka". Jutarnji list. 29 October 2007. http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2007,10,29,,96040.jl. Retrieved 20 January 2008.

[edit] External links

Robert Jarni's sportswear brand (Croatian)

[0] "Jarni potvrđen kao prvi trener Hajduka". Jutarnji list. 29 October 2007. http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2007,10,29,,96040.jl. Retrieved 20 January 2008.

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