Mladen Petrić

Mladen Petrić (born 1 January 1981) is a retired professional footballer who played as a forward or striker.

During his career, he played for Grasshopper, Basel, Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Fulham, West Ham United and Panathinaikos.

Born in Socialist Bosnia, he represented Switzerland on youth levels internationally before opting for Croatia on senior level.

Petrić was born in the village of Dubrave near Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia.

Petrić moved with his family to Vinkovci and then later to Neuenhof, Switzerland, where he started to play football at the local club FC Neuenhof before moving to FC Baden and starting his professional career at the club in the summer of 1998.

He left Baden after one season and went on to sign with Grasshopper Club Zürich in the summer of 1999.

Petrić signed for Grasshopper Club ahead of the 1999–2000 Nationalliga A season.

At that time GC was the clear number one in Switzerland, and foreign players were often brought in for positions up front.

This was particularly pronounced under head coach Roy Hodgson, therefore Petrić had a difficult time.

In the next season Hans-Peter Zaugg was appointed as new head coach and Petrić came to regular appearances and in his first five games scored three goals.

At the end of the 2000–01 Swiss Football League season Petrić won the championship with GC.

In the 2001–02 season GC were runners-up behind FC Basel and reached the Swiss Cup final.

In the final Petrić scored the equaliser, after Basel had taken an early lead.

The match went into extra time, but FCB won 2–1 and thus the trophy.

At the end of the 2002–03 Nationalliga A season, Petrić won his second championship with GC.

But he received much criticism because of an action during the Swiss Championship celebrations, in which he burned a Basel scarf.

In the 2003–04 season GC again reached the cup final, this time they were defeated 3–2 by Wil.

Petrić left the club in the summer of 2004.

During his time playing for GC, he made a total of 114 domestic league appearances and scored 30 league goals for the club.

He joined Basel's first team during their 2004–05 season under head coach Christian Gross and Petrić was persuaded to join FCB by him.

After playing in seven test games he played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 17 July 2004 as Basel won 6–0 against Aarau.

He scored his first goal for with the team in the away game in the Stadion Lachen on 22 September.

But this goal could not help the team, as Basel were defeated 4–1 by Thun.

Basel completed all the 2004–05 Super League season's seventeen home games undefeated, winning thirteen and drawing four.

They ended the season as Swiss champions with 10 points advantage over second placed Thun.

Petrić had 22 appearances, scoring five league goals.

However Petrić suffered an injury in February 2005 and he then missed the rest of the season.

As Swiss champions, Basel entered the 2005–06 Champions League third qualifying round.

However, they were drawn against German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen and they lost 4–2 on aggregate.

Subsequently Basel dropped into the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, where against NK Široki Brijeg in the first round, second leg, Petrić scored his first European and the team sealed a 6–0 aggregate win to qualify for the Group stage.

Here Basel were then drawn into Group E, alongside Strasbourg, Roma, Red Star Belgrade and Tromsø.

Basel qualified for the knock-out stage and in the round of 32 Basel were drawn against AS Monaco, this was won 2–1 on aggregate.

In the round of 16, Basel were drawn against Strasbourgh winning 4–2 on aggregate.

In the quarter-finals, drawn against Middlesbrough they won the first leg 2–0, but Middlesbrough fought back to win the return match 4–1 and the tie 4–3 on aggregate.

Petrić played in 13 of these 14 European games, scoring three goals.

Basel started into the 2005–06 Super League season well and led the championship right until the last day of the league campaign.

Petrić scored a hat-trick for the team on 2 October 2005 in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park as Basel won 5–1 against Thun.

On the final day of the league season, Basel played at home against Zürich.

Petrić had scored an equaliser after FCZ had taken an early lead.

Petrić was acquired for a transfer fee of approximate €3 million and he signed a four-year contract until June 2008.