Ivica Olic: Croatia's Old-Timer Set for a Landmark

Croatia legend Ivica Olic is set to make his 100th appearance for the national team against Italy, the very team he scored his first competitive international goal against 12 years ago. What’s the secret to his longevity and lasting impact?

Perhaps the most colourful—yet very apt—description of Olic came courtesy of The Guardian’s football editor, Marcus Christenson, who wrote a wonderful homage to the 35-year-old during last summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Dubbing him the "anti-Cristiano Ronaldo," Christenson wrote that Olic “does not feature in adverts for expensive cars, [but]...as with an old Volkswagen, he could be relied to keep going.”

The statement is very true, as VfL Wolfsburg—a Bundesliga club owned by the iconic car manufacturer—have found since they signed the seasoned forward from Bayern Munich in 2012. Olic has since been a regular in their first team, performing in a steadily and registering 27 goals in 73 league appearances.

Last summer, there was much talk of him moving to the Premier League and Olic himself expressed a desire to play against the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool, per Jure Bohoric of Sky Sports. In the end, however, he bailed out on the move to Stoke City, revealing it was the style of play at the Britannia that proved the biggest stumbling block in his negotiations with manager Mark Hughes.

“My neck will hurt with your long balls, who on earth is going to catch them all,” Olic told the Stoke gaffer, per Jutarnji List (h/t Sky Sports).

So the old Golf Diesel stayed parked at the Volkswagen Arena, and Olic signed a contract extension until 2016—the year in which he will turn 37. Knowing him, that might not even be his last because he seems to enjoy his football as much as, if not more than when he was a youngster trying to make his mark on the big stage.

Croatia’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Italy in Milan is a special occasion for him.

He is not certain to start, with Atletico Madrid’s Mario Mandzukic a firm first choice and newcomer Andrej Kramaric stuffing the net at a ridiculous rate this season (30 goals in 27 appearances across all competitions). But if he does get some playing time, it will be his 100th cap for the national team. In the current team, only captain Darijo Srna has amassed more (120).

It was the Azzurri that Olic scored his first international goal in a competitive match against back in the 2002 at the World Cup in Japan, as Croatia defeated Italy 2-1—though that was not enough for them to progress from the group.

That summer, he moved to Croatian powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb after shockingly winning the league with the city’s “lesser” club, NK Zagreb. His career path would later take him to CSKA Moscow, Hamburg and Bayern Munich. He won three trophies in Croatia (one with NK Zagreb and two with Dinamo), eight in Russia (including the 2005 UEFA Cup) and has so far won three in Germany.

He played in two Champions League finals with Bayern, losing both. Jose Mourinho’s Inter triumphed over Louis van Gaal's side in 2010, while the defeat two years later was even more painful because it happened at Bayern’s Allianz Arena. Olic came off the bench against Chelsea in extra time and missed one of the penalty kicks in the shootout.

That was his last game for the Bavarian giants, who finally won the European title a year after Olic left for Wolfsburg.

Olic has become a favourite among Croatia fans, who hold him in high regard for his battling spirit and the enormous drive he puts into his every performance for his country. Never among the best technicians in the team—to put it mildly—or scoring regularly (19 goals in 99 appearances), he is appreciated for always having been the one who tries the hardest and never gives up.

Last summer, he scored at the World Cup again, this time in Croatia’s 4-0 rout over Cameroon. It was 12 years after that Italy goal. Only one player before him—Danish icon Michael Laudrup—had taken that much between scoring his first and second World Cup goals.

This old Volkswagen has been through numerous crashes and repairs. Injuries have marred his career to the point that it sometimes looks as though one of his limbs could just fall off in the middle of the game as he storms down the flank in a counter attack or sneaks into the box to scrape in a stray ball from the far post. But Croatia managers have always had him in their teams as soon as he was fit, and he has always found ways to repay them for their trust.

The deal with Ivica Olic is that he just keeps going.

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