Dario Šimić

Dario Šimić(born November 12, 1975 in Zagreb, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Croatian football player who currently plays for A.C. Milan of the Italian Serie A. Nicknamed 'The Pitbull' for his fearsome competitiveness, Šimić is a versatile defender who can play at full-back, sweeper or central defender. He is the only player who featured in all of Croatia's major tournaments since the country's independence and is also the Croatian national team's all-time cap leader with a total of 91 international caps.

Career

Šimić made his name with Dinamo Zagreb where he started his professional football career in 1992. He played for Dinamo for seven seasons, during which the club won five Croatian First League titles and also became a member of the Croatian national football team.

Šimić appeared in only one out of four matches played by Croatia at the Euro 1996, but was then a regular member of the starting line-up at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where Croatia surprisingly finished third, and appeared in six out of seven matches at the tournament, only missing the third-place match as he was not eligible to play after being given two yellow cards in the previous two matches. His performances in France earned the attentions of Europe's biggest clubs and he went on to join Inter Milan in January 1999 after also playing with Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Champions League in the autumn of 1998. However, he never established himself as a first-team regular during four years in Inter, and the cross-city rivals agreed a player swap with Ümit Davala going in the opposite direction in 2002.

He played for Croatia in two out of three group matches at the 2002 FIFA World Cup as well as in all three group matches at the Euro 2004. The Croatian team was eliminated in the first round on both of these two tournaments. On the club level, he made a more significant contribution with AC Milan including 13 appearances on the road to victory in the 2003 UEFA Champions League, though he was omitted from the Old Trafford final.

In May 2006, he signed a contract extension with Milan that will keep him at the club until 2009, just weeks after openly criticizing coach Carlo Ancelotti over lack of playing time.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he appeared in all of the Croatian team's three group matches before they were eliminated from the tournament with two draws and one defeat. The second group match against Japan on June 18, 2006 in Nuremberg was also notable for being his 82nd for Croatia, which enabled him to surpass Robert Jarni's record-holding 81 caps and became the Croatian team's all-time cap leader. In the last group match against Australia, he was sent off in 85th minute for receiving his second yellow card in the match.

Alongside experienced Robert Kovač and Igor Tudor he is considered one of the best Croatian defenders in recent history. Šimić also scored three goals for Croatia and last time he was on target with a last-minute goal for their 3-2 victory in a friendly match against Argentina on March 1, 2006 in Basel.