Darko Matić

Darko Matić (;[1][2] born September 26, 1980) is a retired Croatian[3] professional football player who played as a defensive midfielder.[4] He is currently the Sports Director of Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang.

For the Croatian basketball player, see Darko Matic (basketball).
Darko Matić
Personal information
Full name Darko Matić
Date of birth (1980-09-26) 26 September 1980
Place of birth Domaljevac, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Defensive midfielder
Youth career
1992–2000 Tennis Borussia Berlin
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000–2002 FC Thun 53 (6)
2002–2003 HNK Orašje 41 (5)
2004 1. FC Eschborn 17 (4)
2004–2005 HNK Orašje 38 (8)
2005–2006 FC Senec 54 (5)
2007–2008 Tianjin Teda 58 (1)
2009–2015 Beijing Guoan 242 (4)
2016 Changchun Yatai 30 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 October 2016

Club career

Matić left his country because of the Yugoslav Wars and would move to Germany to begin his football career with Tennis Borussia Berlin's youth team and Tennis Borussia Berlin first team . He played his first game in the first team in the second division in Germany when he was 17, under the coach Winfried Schaefer. In summer 2000 he would join second tier Swiss football club FC Thun. Matic would help FC Thun winning the promotion after 50 years. In 2002, he signed for HNK Orašje in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Premier League. In 2004, Matić joined German team 1. FC Eschborn for a short period. In the 2004–05 league season he would join once again top tier side NK Orašje and play in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, helping them finish third and win the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Cup.[5] Once again moving on to this time Slovak football club FC Senec in the 2005–06 league season he would help them win promotion to the Slovak Superliga. He was captain of his team Senec and he got an invitation from the Slovak Football Federation to play for the Slovakia national football team.

He transferred to Chinese Super League club Tianjin Teda in 2007 and would quickly become an integral member of the team by playing in all 28 games of the season.[6] The following season when he aided the team to a fourth-place finish and had a chance to play AFC Champions League football. At the beginning of the 2009 league season Beijing Guoan were interested at his defensive abilities and signed him, this was to prove a successful signing when Matić once more quickly became an integral member of the team and aided Beijing to win their first league title.

Matić featured in most Beijing Guoan matches since joining the club including a run into the last 16 of the AFC Champions League where Guoan lost out to the eventual runners-up, Korean side FC Seoul. He scored a rare goal toward the end of 2014 in a 2-2 draw with Shandong Luneng.[7]

Matić has become a rare foreign player in Chinese football in that he has played over 200 games for Beijing Guoan by the end of the 2014 Chinese Super League season for one club and is now top of the list for appearances by a CSL foreign player. He subsequently has become a legend with the fans in Beijing and has a following on Sina Weibo of over 1.3 million people.[8] Matić has expressed an interest in staying in China in the future with the possibility of getting involved in coaching.[9]

In January 2016, Matić transferred to fellow Chinese Super League side Changchun Yatai.[10] He announced his retirement in February 2017.[11]

Matić became the director of International Division of Beijing Guoan on 5 April 2017.[12]

Personal life

Matić is ethnic Bosnian Croat. He is fluent in nine languages with those being Chinese, German, Croatian, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Czech.[13] He has proven his fluency in Chinese with his numerous post-game interviews.

Honours

Beijing Guoan

References
  1. "dȃr". Hrvatski jezični portal (in Serbo-Croatian). Retrieved 2018-03-17. Dárko
  2. "Máte". Hrvatski jezični portal (in Serbo-Croatian). Retrieved 2018-03-17. Mátić
  3. http://sportske.ba/rodjen-je-u-bosanskoj-posavini-igrao-u-orasju-a-sada-je-legenda-u-kini-i-pomocnik-rafe-beniteza/
  4. "马季奇：昨天的故事已在行囊 明天的希望在路上". Tianjin Teda FC. 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  5. "Bosnia-Hercegovina 2004/05". rsssf.com. 2005-09-01. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  6. "Player Darko Matić". sohu.com. 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  7. http://slide.sports.sina.com.cn/n_j/slide_2_789_69398.html?img=1311400#p=5. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. http://www.weibo.com/u/3820616352?topnav=1&wvr=6&topsug=1. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3952/asia/2014/05/26/4839999/darko-matic-talks-chinese-football-development?ICID=OP. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. "马季奇：新赛季要穿亚泰球衣". sohu. 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  11. "马季奇平静宣布退役:在国安7年没有一天感觉不好". Sina. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  12. "回家!国安官宣马季奇任国际总监 资深阅历促加盟". Sina. 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
  13. http://video.sina.com.cn/p/sports/j/v/2013-02-20/235862069683.html
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