Ivica Mornar

Ivica Mornar (born 12 January 1974) is a Croatian former footballer. He started as striker, but was mostly deployed as a winger during his career.

Ivica Mornar

Personal information
Full name	Ivica Mornar
Date of birth	(1974-01-12) 12 January 1974
Place of birth	Split, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1991–1995	Hajduk Split	79	(26)
1995–1996	Eintracht Frankfurt	19	(1)
1996–1997	Sevilla	11	(2)
1997–1998	Ourense	28	(8)
1998–2001	Standard Liège	68	(23)
2001–2004	Anderlecht	59	(24)
2004–2006	Portsmouth	10	(1)
2004–2005	→ Rennes (loan)	15	(0)
Total		289	(85)
National team
1994–1995	Croatia U-21[1]	5	(1)
1994–2004	Croatia	22	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Mornar began his career with Hajduk Split before going on to play for Eintracht Frankfurt, Sevilla, CD Ourense, Standard Liège, Anderlecht and Portsmouth.

He played 22 matches and scored once for the Croatian national team, representing them at Euro 2004.

Club career

Mornar was born in Split.

In Mornar's final season at Anderlecht, he scored their goal in a 1–1 home draw against Bayern Munich on 30 September 2003.[2]

The player was offered a new two-year contract by Anderlecht, but opted to move across the English channel to Portsmouth. He moved to the Premier League at the end of January 2004 for £500,000, signing a two-and-half-year deal.

Mornar made his Pompey debut in a goalless draw at home to Wolverhampton, and looked lively. He then scored his first and only goal in the next game against Tottenham.[3] A performance that earned Mornar the 'Swan d'Or', a celebrated Croatian sporting award. He played as a winger in most of his Portsmouth appearances.

However, Mornar failed to recreate his previous form at Portsmouth. Seemingly out of the picture at the club, he was loaned to Rennes of the French Ligue 1 for the 2004–05 season, with then Pompey manager Harry Redknapp saying that. he would allow Mornar to be sold upon his return, although this was not well received by the fans who admired his tireless running on the wings. Although it appeared that Mornar was in new boss Alain Perrin's plans for the 2005–06 campaign, he was thwarted by hamstring injuries throughout the season. Upon the return of Harry Redknapp as manager in December 2005 it looked as though Mornar's contract would be allowed to expire the next Summer. However, it transpired that there was a clause in his contract guaranteeing him a further year at the club should relegation be avoided and he remained a Portsmouth player, until September 2006 when his contract with the club was cancelled by mutual consent. This brought further complications due to the fact that Mornar could not find a club willing to sign him. Despite his unceremonious exit from Portsmouth he enjoyed his time playing there and persuaded fellow Split native Niko Kranjčar to join the club. Reportedly he offered his services to first league teams from Belgium, Scotland, Portugal and Japan but no team was interested, thereby forcing his retirement.

International career

Mornar was capped 22 times for Croatia and scored one goal for his country.

Career statistics

Club

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Croatia			League		Croatian Cup		Super Cup		Europe		Total
1990–91	Hajduk Split	Yugoslav First League	2	1	0	0	–		1	0	3	1
1992	Hajduk Split	Prva HNL	19	7	2	0	–		–		21	7
1992–93			21	7	8	1	1	0	–		30	8
1993–94			27	8	5	1	2	2	2	1	36	12
1994–95			9	3	6	0	1	1	7	0	23	4
1995–96			1	0	–		–		2	0	3	0
Germany			League		DFB-Pokal		Other		Europe		Total
1995–96	Eintracht Frankfurt	Bundesliga	19	2	0	0	–		–		19	2
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Supercopa de España		Europe		Total
1996–97	Sevilla	La Liga	11	2	3	0	–		–		14	2
1997–98	Ourense	Segunda División	28	8	3	0	–		–		31	8
Belgium			League		Belgian Cup		Super Cup		Europe		Total
1998–99	Standard Liège	First Division	15	3	–		–		–		15	3
1999–00			23	8	5	0	–		–		28	8
2000–01			30	12	2	0	–		2	1	34	13
2001–02	Anderlecht	First Division	23	8	1	2	1	0	7	2	32	12
2002–03			20	6	2	1	–		3	0	25	7
2003–04	Anderlecht	First Division	16	10	2	1	–		8	1	26	12
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2003–04	Portsmouth	Premier League	8	1	2	0	–		–		10	1
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
2004–05	Stade Rennais	Ligue 1	15	0	–		–		–		15	0
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2005–06	Portsmouth	Premier League	2	0	–		–		–		2	0
Total	Croatia		77	25	21	2	4	3	12	1	114	31
	Germany		19	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	19	2
	Spain		39	10	6	0	0	0	0	0	45	10
	Belgium		127	47	12	4	1	0	20	4	160	55
	England		10	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	12	1
	France		15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
Career total			268	78	41	6	5	3	32	5	346	92

[4]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
01.	20 August 2003	Portman Road, Ipswich, England	England	2 − 1	3 − 1	Friendly

Honours

Club

Hajduk Split

• Prva HNL (3): 1992, 1993–94, 1994–95
• Croatian Cup (2): 1992-93, 1994-95
• Croatian Supercup (2): 1993, 1994

Sevilla

• Trofeo Colombino (1): 1996

R.S.C. Anderlecht

• Belgian First Division (1): 2003–04
• Belgian Super Cup (1): 2001

References

1. "STATISTICS". Croatian football federation. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
2. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2003/matches/round=1712/match=1056814/index.html
3. "Tottenham 4-3 Portsmouth". BBC. 7 February 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
4. "I.Mornarstatistics". Soccerway. Retrieved 29 November 2018.

External links

• Archive of Hajduk's matches