Meet Your Croat: Danijel Pranjic
Here we go again, Meet Your Croat, vol. II:
Name: Danijel Pranjic
Born: 2. 12. 1981. (age 26)
Position: Left Wing-back, Left Midfielder
Club: Left, I mean, SC Heerenveen
National Caps: 9 (0)
Biography:
Started his career in NK Osijek, where he spent a total of two seasons (2002-2004). Also a part of Croatia’s youth setup at that time, Pranjic inevitably caught the interest from Croatia’s two biggest clubs, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. He chose Zagreb as his next destination, and had a solid first season as well, accumulating 29 appearances and scoring 2 goals in the process.

Though it turned out those statistics alone weren’t enough to satisfy the always hungry Dinamo officials, who proceeded to sell Pranjic to SC Heerenveen for a rather modest sum of €500k. Incidentally, Dinamo had played Herenveen in previous season’s UEFA cup, a match in which Pranjic had obviously done enough to impress the Dutch folks. It was a rather rash decision made by Dinamo officials, as Pranjic went on to make a great impact in Heerenveen, collecting 73 appearances and producing a number of goals and most notably assists in his time there.
As a reward for this fine form, Pranjic has sparked the interest of clubs like Ajax and Tottenham, in the meantime of course earning himself a place in Bilic’s squad for the upcoming EURO’s.
On The Pitch:
As it usually goes with you wing-backs, he’s fairly short (172 cm), pacey, and well, short and pacey. Seriously though, he’s been labeled as the new Robert Jarni, our NT’s most influential left wingback up to this date. His strengths are obviously his pace and dribbling down the left side, and more importantly his quality when delivering the ball. These have all resulted in him being among the Dutch Eredivisie top assists players for a couple of seasons now. Under Bilic, he’s not yet that influential, and usually comes off the bench. However, his performances when coming on and those he produces in his club, might just force Bilic to turn to Pranjic as our NT’s first choice left back.
Off The Pitch:
Not much to say here as he’s moved abroad fairly soon in his career. He has rarely featured in an interview or any kind of media exposure since then, so I guess commenting his personality would be simply speculating. I did mention he is short and pacey though?
The Good: Pace, dribbling, quality delivery, natural left footer
The Bad: NT inexperience, perhaps too offensive for a left back
The Random:
- see him in action here, (I recommend you mute the audio though)
- first Croat to have a Dutch fan site
- wears this on a weekly basis
- he’s short and pacey
- I’ll probably get in trouble for calling him s&p so often
Stay tuned for more.
Related Posts
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share
|
Comments


The revelation of this year’s Dutch competition, great scoring abilities, outstanding working spirit. Probably won’t last long in Holland, will be sold for a lot of money.




very good player, he was playing in the england vs croatia game, did very well. No mistakes and great passes!




Spectacular player….unfortunate that Bilic does not see him as a starter yet…




It’s nice to hear all of you guys praising him. Let’s see if Bilic opts for a more offensive solution on our left side, one that would include Pranjic. I’m guessing he’ll also have a chance to impress Bilic against Moldavia this Saturday.




very exciting player. he even was quite decent as a left back v scotland. the one thing he does that kranjcar does not is attack fullbacks/make runs to the touchline. gives the team width on the left. i hear its either spurs or, more likely, ajax…




i almost forgot- he’s extremely short and pacey…




Hey! Great writing. Pranjic is perhaps my favorite player on the Croatian team. I loves me a short and pacey winger. I’m glad to see that Bilic also loves Pranjic’ short and pacey approach.
Short and pacey.
Posted from
Norway


Comments are closed
Send Your Tips!
Email tips[at]worldcupblog[dot]org
Croatia Club Football News
- Would You Rather: Club Win the League? Or Country Win the World Cup?
- Daily Dose: October 11th, 2009.
- The Atlantic League: A European Not-Quite-Super-But Still-Quite-Good-League for Celtic, Rangers and Others
- Is Watching Football on the Internet The Future?
- The FFT100 - Agree? Disagree?
More Europe Blogs
France World Cup Blog
791 Articles | 10,335 Comments
Croatia World Cup Blog
192 Articles | 1,821 Comments
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 Articles | 320 Comments
England World Cup Team Blog
812 Articles | 2,768 Comments
Germany World Cup Blog Blog
485 Articles | 3,098 Comments
Italy World Cup Blog
567 Articles | 21,801 Comments
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,016 Articles | 26,976 Comments
Poland World Cup Blog
352 Articles | 4,200 Comments
Portugal World Cup Blog
453 Articles | 7,018 Comments
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
168 Articles | 847 Comments
Spain World Cup Blog
235 Articles | 1,926 Comments
Sweden World Cup Blog
151 Articles | 318 Comments
Switzerland World Cup Blog
217 Articles | 327 Comments
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
120 Articles | 807 Comments
Greece World Cup Blog
142 Articles | 70 Comments
Russia World Cup Blog
81 Articles | 143 Comments
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
101 Articles | 108 Comments
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
55 Articles | 121 Comments
Norway World Cup Team Blog
9 Articles | 6 Comments
Turkey World Cup Blog
39 Articles | 293 Comments
Romania World Cup Blog
78 Articles | 281 Comments
Austria World Cup Blog
111 Articles | 117 Comments
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
8 Articles | 27 Comments
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 Articles | 8 Comments
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 Articles | 59 Comments
Wales World Cup Team Blog
61 Articles | 17 Comments
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
31 Articles | 87 Comments
Israel World Cup Team Blog
22 Articles | 18 Comments
Monthly Archives
World 







