Ivan Perišić takes the crown with 22 goals
22 year-old Croatian stud Ivan Perišić ended his Club Brugge career in spectacular fashion Tuesday as he scored two goals in a 3-0 win over AA Gent. Even though both strikes were relatively soft due to poor defending, the goals gave Perišić 22 on the season- enough to earn him the 2010-11 Belgium Jupiler scoring title.
Perišić got off to an average start in Belgium last season, only scoring three goals after signing in the summer of 2009. However, the young Croatian scored a league-leading 22 this season to make it a total of 25 goals in 59 appearances.
Perišić strikes #21
How seriously can we take the leading goal scorer in Belgium though? Even if he is only 22 years old? Ivan Leko, who was capped by Croatia 13 times, has scored 31 goals in Belgium since joining the league from Hajduk Split in 2005. Leko has played 151 games in Belgium with Club Brugge, Germinal Beerschot and current club Lokeren.
Ivica Mornar scored 71 goals in 186 appearances for Standard Liège and Anderlecht from 1998 to 2004, but only scored one goal for Croatia in 22 appearances. Goal.com has reported that Perišić will sign with German champions Borussia Dortmund as soon as this Sunday.
CSR’s own Golden Child has informed us that newly promoted Premiership side, Queens Park Rangers, are also interested in Perišić; TribalFootball reports. What is the better move?
PERIŠIĆ GOALS AT 0:51 & 2:44
Perišić was a beast for Brugge this season and should be an instant favorite for all Croatian fans in the near future. Notice in the highlights above after the second goal (2:55), Perišić takes his jersey off and makes sure the young lady waving the Croatian flag gets it. Class!
GOAL #22 CELEBRATION. CROATIAN FANS GETS JERSEY. PERIŠIĆ GETS YELLOW.
What kind of role will Perišić play for the Croatian national team now that he is moving to a top four league? Is he an automatic starter for the Georgia match in Split on June 4th with Ivan Rakitić and Niko Kranjčar out? What kind of expectations should be set for the kid? Is Borussia Dortmund the right club for Perišić?
Who in CSR Nation has the answers?
2010-11 BELGIAN SCORING LEADERS
With this year’s scoring title, Perišić joins fellow Club Brugge Croats Mario Stanić (20) and Robert Spehar (26) as Belgian Pro League top scorers. He was also the only player in Belgium this season to score four goals in one game: vs. Charleroi on December 29th.
Club Brugge must win their two-legged Belgian Testmatch in order to qualify for next year’s Europa League tournament. It doesn’t look like Perišić will play in these games. See you in Split!
add another name to the list of Croatians in the Bundesliga as Ivan Perisic officially signs a 5 year deal for Dortmund.
"I signed a contract for five years, now its only a matter of time before the transfer is official." ~Perisic for Belgian TV
I agree man, he made the right move. This is BVB not some small town club in German League. That is why I love this move, because this team is legit and playing in UCL. We need Croatians to keep playing in UCL such as Jelavic who will be playing there next year.
Bolton has some talent though, it's not just him. Gary Cahill is another guy that makes me say "wow" this guy would be a shoe in on Croatia. Stuart Holden before his injury was really talented. Bolton is an entertaining squad, but I get what your saying. I hate Stoke, they are the definition of what you made all the mid to low EPL teams out to be.
Budesliga is hardly behind in quality of players compared to PL. Both are behind La Liga…
Let me put it this way Germany has like 40 40,000+ thousand stadiums? I don't think La Liga or EPL combined have that many. 2nd Leauge of Germany has bigger infrastructures than most PL sides. BVB has an 80,000 stadium with CL and top flight league available. QPR will have nothing more to play for than survival. While any playing time is better than sitting on the bench playing on relegation PL sides isn't my view of developing anything.
I don't know i think its ridiculous to even compare who would a player play for QPR or BVB. Its almost humiliating to even compare the two sides.
Allen,
I watch PL every weekend man! I watch La Liga and Bundesliga as well!
Fast paced may the the label for the PL but the bottom teams are made to play awful. Who in there right mind is going to watch a Wigan vs Stoke match? They don't even sell out when they play vs Man U! No offense but I could care less if they play at a fast pace and open ball when they lack so much skill! I don't care for crunching tackles and set pieces…you may disagree with me which is fine you are allowed to have a different view to what you like to watch but Blackpool gets a record for play attractive football at the bottom of the table? Most other leagues other bottom teams play like that! La Liga, Seria A, Bundesliga. Like I said the top 8ish maybe teams are fairly attractive to watch in PL because they choose to play what is defined as PL football outside of that its fairly boring imo.
As you point on Sturridge…yes he is very talented but so what it takes 11 players and a coach to make it an attractive game not 1! I am not going to watch a Bolton match to see long balls to him….sorry but its pretty much a fact that these teams play survival tactics which i understand why but i rather go watch barney or big bird on pbs than watch these bottom teams.
I would take Dortmund over QPR for one simple reason and it's Champions League football. UCL is a great league and Persic could play a huge part. If he went to England, I would love it but he made the right move.
Now for all you ripping on the bottom teams, don't get me started. I will go at Andrej because I am tired of people ripping the bottom teams. Birmingham is the only team on that list that plays like you portray them out to be. Wigan is so exciting, yet their name turns them off. They play so loose and are such an exciting team. Bolton is in the top ten buddy, they play some great soccer ever saw Danny Sturridge play? The way he plays will make you guys wish he was Croatian although he is on loan from Chelsea. Wolves are exciting, Stoke is boring but their not a bottom. If you actually watched the bottom teams play against not just Man Utd or Chelsea, you would like them. They play such free flowing football it's awesome.
Now that being said, he made the right move. QPR is going to be decent, they do have the best player from Championship in Adel Tabbart who was once the future of Tottenham before Modric came in. We will see what happens with them, but to always rip on EPL baffles me. Almost every team in that league has a striker that I can say I wish we had him over guys like Eduardo, Petric, and Olic. At least we got JELAVIC
Andrej L,
QPR may be as good as Dortmund? I don't think you are serious, right? The PL is the most over-hyped league in the world if thats what you think. I really suggest you watch more of these bottom table teams play and than we can have an argument. Literally my eyes bleed! While the quality of players may be better the amount of entertainment is hardly above HNL! I shit you not! If you want to sit and watch the art of set pieces feel free to do so.
We can agree to disagree but who develops more talent in the end England? Or Spain and Germany?…not to many English if any that would get into Spain or Germany starting 11. I far prefer Croats not playing in EPL and play in Bundesliga and La Liga…suits most top players better…
Perisic to Dortmund is virtually a done deal. Apparently this Sunday he will sign officially with the club.
Corluka for CDM!!!
Perisic for captian! Nothign wrong with a young captian!
Denis Svircic,
Many thanks for the welcome! I've been a long time fan of the site (for a couple of years now) and decided it was time to post a comment. You guys are doing good work here.
I'm writing you guys from Toronto, 1st generation via Imotski and Kupres.
Peace.
Robert.
Dortmund of course….Juergen Klopp is a great coach who loves playing young players, however I don't see Perisic starting at Dortmund. The attacking midfielder position is very hard to break through in their system, yes they could use a CM replacing Nuri Sahin but I don't think that is his natural position. With Grosskreutz Goetze Kagawa and Blaczykowsky(probably misspelled that last one) it will be very rough to break through into the top 11.
On the other hand he is guaranteed CL play next season, he will be playing on the top team in BL right now, next to Bayern Munich, and he would still have a strong season as the BL sits very well with Croatian Players.
I would love to see him play at BVB
7 questions. This must be a CSR record. Well written article on the future of Croatian soccer.
I think Dortmund would be the obvious choice here for Perisic. Lets get Kranjcar in the Bundesliga then we can officially call it Kroatienliga.
QPR is hit or miss. Like some of you mentioned here on CSR, the bottomfeeders of EPL play shit football and just play for the result. This isnt a good place for Ivan to develop.
@Robert Dumancic,
Croatia has never had another Niko Kovac. Sadly, it will be a long time until we get another one. Where are you writing us from? Welcome.
This might be Dujmovic' last tournament. Vuki is decent at best.
@Marko & Goldenchild,
thanks for the links.
@Ivo,
I agree. the chaaaaampions…. the chaaaaaampions…. champions league.
I don't think it's even debatable. With Dortmund you have real, established club; with QPR, best case scenario, a "might be" decent side. But most importantly, with Dortmund he'll be able to play the Champions league, and that's huge.
As Andrej said, all the mid/bottom teams just play in survival mode. There's no way Ivan can improve much with that kind of game.
Congrats to Perisic – he should be happy with a move to Dortmund.
My only gripe is there seems to be too many Cro players in Bundesliga now – if only more of them could make it out to medium-sized teams in England or Spain…
QPR may not even end up staying in the PL after one year. And the players on that team are probably just as good as the ones on Dortmund.
Perisic was solid for the NT. Hopefully he continues to get better. He looks really confident on the ball.
CORLUKA FOR DMF!!
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6567018/croat-sentenced-5-plus-years-match-fixing
man oh man.
I think Lovren is fine by staying at Lyon as long as they are constantly playing in CL I don't think he needs to move anywhere unless he desires to. Ligue 1 isn't a terrible league by any standard and as seen in CL most of the French teams are very well organized and fairly successful. I think Liverpool is on there way back up again and they will inject funds to get back to top 4 again but who wouldn't want to play for a side as big as Liverpool? He would be a starter there more than likely…but anyway these are rumors and if I believed everything I read in the rumors column I would go crazy.
I didn't know he was 8th richest man in the world but that is always reassuring BUT I will still say that there is no guarantee they stay up either way. He may have money but it is still pretty difficult to sign proven quality players being in that kind of position not many players will join you. 18k stadium…for a PL team is weak…but 80k in dourtmund is reassuring and shows what kind of power they already have. I wouldn't say Bundesliga is behind in quality of football from the PL but that is just my opinion. I have nothing against the PL but I feel a move there means you must move to a top 8ish team otherwise you may as well move to any of the other top leagues.
Understandable. You raise a couple good points Andrej. It is definitely a "survival of the fittest" type of mentality.
But, as we have seen, money can change a lot of things. QPR has been in a financial situation, but now that they are in the Premier League things may change. One of the 2 of their owners is the 8th richest man in the world. With the promotion, you can expect a lot of money to be thrown the clubs way to start competing at a higher level.
(http://bit.ly/1sQdBi)
Even though Dortmund is doing great, you can also look at the long run gamble. If Perisic joins QPR now, the team starts getting funded(like a Man City), and Perisic does well. He could be a prominent fixture on a potentially great team.
But in the end, it's a big gamble. A lot of things could go wrong. So I guess Germany would be the safer bet.
Another piece of info. Looks like Lovren is being scouted by Liverpool.
http://bit.ly/mxglkc
Playing in the best league means nothing when you are playing for the worst team in the league or one of them. What has Kalinic learned as a PL striker? Thats right! Nothing! You get service once every 5 matches and you better score on set pieces. You run around and do little passing and mostly 1 on 1 wing play. I hardly consider moves to a better league and joining a relegation battle team a great move. Please next time you have free time and you want to bore yourself to death go watch a Wolves, Bolton, Wigan, Birmingham, Stoke, ect match! Tell me how you can call that entertaining? Fast paced? Yes…BUT it lacks so much in quality! If you think I am wrong I am up for debate but I am telling you from what I have seen and that is a lot! it has not shown me to be very attractive from most of those bottom teams
Who's QPR??
QPR would be a mistake! Bottom table PL table team? 1 step forward two steps backwards! Bigger and better league? Yes! If you watch PL you see that the PL in mid-bottom table is awful to watch! I don't care if they are full international players or not but that kind of football is branded as survival football tactics. Long balls, set pieces, and idiotic career ending tackles! Sure, it can happen anywhere but I won't get into why I don't think PL is best league out there. Anyway NO NO NO to Perisic making move to QPR probably the stupidest move he could even consider.
Dujmovic is already 30 years old and doesn't quite have the pedigree/background necessary (no offense to the Russian Premier League) to compete with the big boys of Europe.
I do like the idea of Corluka switching to the DM position, a la Zvonimir Soldo. Who knows? I'm sure Bilic has pondered over these things many a night….
Cheers everyone!
On another note:
Bayern Munich just picked up a 4th striker. Could be bad news for Olic?
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2011-05-19-874995131_x.htm
QPR wouldn't be bad move either. He'll be playing in the EPL, most likely starting…since QPR is selling a couple top men. Perisic, in my opinion, would be a definite starter. The move to Germany is also great. Top team in the Bundesliga.
What would you do?
Lesser of a team + best league.
Better team + 2nd best league
Another thing about Perisic is his attention to detail. He can't be a leader due to his age, but you can see the fire in this kid. After he scored his first goal, he celebrated, but then what over to his teammate to talk about something that he was obviously not happy about. Perisic knows he's in an easier league, but he's trying to improve the players around him even when they put in goals.
Ilicevic first of isn't even a CM but far more a wide player. He has not had defensive responsibility like a CM has ever yet alone he has done nothing to say he is worthy of having a starting 11 spot let alone shown anything to say he shows promise of filling that spot. Dujmovic…the guy has played a good game here and there but don't see him growing into any player outside of what he is currently and he isn't even a lock in the starting 11! Key factor for leaders! Modric is a lock in the team! He is already a leader but does not need a armband to show that. I think if we were ever to move Corluka to CM he has the ability to develop more as a player. He has all the technical skills and has never relied upon speed(once he is sprinting he isn't very slow but he is just not quick…very slow there)…he can keep developing as a player i think in offensive abilities as well as defensive(drop 25lbs)…Corluka may not be my first choice Modric is my first but like I said we all know Modric leads anyway without the armband.
As for Perisic good job and he has a bright future. I love the ability he brings to this side. We need players like this in our side he just brings so many options of how we can play.
We all agree that N. Kovac left a void that still has not yet been filled. He was a vocal leader and a very quick defensive midfielder. I think Ilicevic or Dujmovic have the most potential to take the role. Both of these guys can thread passes as well as play well defensively while haveing the field vision to be a vocal leader.
Nice article and congrats to Ivan if this move goes through. BVB are a massive club in German football and have, in my humble opinion, the best stadium and fans in Europe. If he lives up to his billing as the 'new Asanovic', we'll get 60+ caps and hopefully a good Euro/World Cup run or two.
It never ceases to amaze me how Croatia is able to produce so many technically gifted midfielders – Modric, Kranjcar, Rakitic, Badelj, Ilicevic, etc, etc.
What the national team really needs is for someone to fill Niko Kovac's (Livno represent!)shoes; a defensive midfielder that acts as cover for the back four. Fingers crossed that Vukojevic claims this role has his own in the coming months. They are massive shoes to fill though, Kovac was also a great captain and a vocal leader.
Cheers,
Robert.