Ivica Banović

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Personal information
Ivica Banović
Full name	Ivica Banović
Date of birth	August 2, 1980 (1980-08-02) (age 27)
Place of birth	Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	SC Freiburg
Number	20
Youth clubs
1986-1997	NK Zagreb
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997–2000 2000–2004 2004–2007 2007–	NK Zagreb SV Werder Bremen 1. FC Nuremberg SC Freiburg	62 0(9) 52 0(2) 70 (10) 22 0(1)
National team²
1999–2000 2004–	Croatia U-21 Croatia	0? 0(?) 02 0(0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of March 17, 2008. ² National team caps and goals correct as of August 13, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Ivica Banović (born August 2, 1980 in Zagreb) is a Croatian football player who plays as a midfielder for German club SC Freiburg.

He began his career at NK Zagreb at the age of six and entered the club's first team in the summer of 1997. Playing for Zagreb, he was also called up for both the Croatian under-18 and under-21 national teams. His first appearance at an international youth tournament was at the 1998 European Under-18 Championship in Cyprus, where the team reached the third place after beating Portugal on penalty shootout. In the spring of 1999, he was part of the Croatian squad at the 1999 World Youth Championship in Nigeria, where he appeared as a second-half substitute in all four matches before the team was eliminated by Brazil in the round of 16 and he also managed to score one goal in Croatia's 5-1 victory over Kazakhstan in the second group match. He also played for the Croatian under-21 team at the final tournament of the 2000 European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia.

After three professional seasons with NK Zagreb, Banović went on to move to German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in the summer of 2000 and continued to play for the club in the following four seasons. He was a relatively standard player in his first three seasons with the club and made a total of 49 Bundesliga appearances, but managed to score only two goals for the club in the league. However, he lost his place in the first team in the 2003-04 season and was eventually sent to the club's reserve squad in the Regionalliga Nord in the spring of 2004, scoring five goals in five appearances in the league. He made only three Bundesliga appearances that season.

He went on to move to another Bundesliga side, 1. FC Nuremberg, in the summer of 2004 and managed a good start in the 2004-05 Bundesliga season by scoring two goals in the opening two matches, subsequently winning his first international cap for the Croatian national A-team in their friendly match against Israel on August 18, 2004 in Varaždin. He also made one appearance for Croatia in the 2006 World Cup qualifying, playing as a substitute in the final 14 minutes of their third qualifying match, against Bulgaria at home in Zagreb. He was subsequently not part of the national team anymore, but continued to play regularly for 1. FC Nuremberg in the Bundesliga. In December 2004, he scored the crucial equaliser for the club in a 2-2 draw against their Bavarian rivals FC Bayern Munich. He made 22 Bundesliga appearances for 1. FC Nuremberg in his first season with the club and went on to make another 23 league appearances in the following season, scoring a total of five Bundesliga goals in these two seasons.

He made a good start in the 2006-07 Bundesliga season, assisting in all three goals for 1. FC Nuremberg's 3-0 away victory over VfB Stuttgart in the club's opening match of the season. He was a starting player in the opening three matches of the season, but later lost his place in the starting eleven and regularly played as a substitute until the end of the season. His tally of five goals in 25 appearances that season is nevertheless his most successful in his Bundesliga career. He also helped Nuremberg to win the German Cup for the 2006-07 season, making four appearances and scoring the winner against BV Cloppenburg in the first round.

The day after the end of the 2006–07 Bundesliga season, it was confirmed that Banović will move to 2nd Bundesliga side SC Freiburg on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract with Nuremberg by the end of June 2007. He signed a two-year contract with the club.^[1] His final appearance for Nuremberg came on May 26, 2007 in the German Cup final against VfB Stuttgart, in which he came off the bench for the final six minutes of extra time.