Sanel Kuljić

Sanel Kuljić (born 10 October 1977) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Sanel Kuljić
Kuljić with Wiener Neustadt in 2008
Personal information
Date of birth (1977-10-10) 10 October 1977
Place of birth Salzburg, Austria
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
SV Grödig
1995–1996 BNZ Salzburg
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–1997 Austria Salzburg 1 (0)
1997–2000 PSV Salzburg
2000–2001 BSV Bad Bleiberg 32 (11)
2001–2002 Pasching 46 (14)
2003 LASK Linz 14 (10)
2003–2006 SV Ried 92 (64)
2006–2007 Sion 22 (12)
2007–2008 Austria Wien 34 (11)
2008–2009 Wiener Neustadt 37 (18)
2010 Neuchâtel Xamax 12 (2)
2011 Larissa 5 (0)
2012–2013 Kapfenberger SV 20 (3)
International career
2005–2007 Austria 20 (3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Born in Salzburg, Kuljić started his professional career in Salzburg but made his name at Austrian Football First League side SV Pasching with whom he won promotion to the Austrian Football Bundesliga in 2002. He repeated that feat with SV Ried in 2005, when he also became 2nd division top goalscorer. In 2006, he became league top goalscorer[1] and subsequently moved abroad to join Swiss side FC Sion but controversially[2] returned to Austria after one year when he signed for Vienna club Austria Wien.

Kuljić left FK Austria Wien for newly formed Austrian second-division side FC Magna Wiener Neustadt[3] – who acquired the playing licence of SC Schwanenstadt for the 2008–09 campaign – and was joined by Austria Wien team-mates Yüksel Sariyar and Sašo Fornezzi.

On 25 November, Kuljić scored four goals and his team Wiener Neustadt beat LASK Linz 4–1.

International career

Kuljić is of Bosnian descent; his father emigrated to Austria from SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1970s.[4] made his debut for the Austria national team in an August 2005 friendly match against Scotland and has earned 20 caps, scoring three goals. He became a regular in the national team squad but was surprisingly overlooked for EURO 2008.[5]

Extortion

In November 2013, Kuljić was taken in custody after former Kapfenberger teammate Dominique Taboga claimed he was blackmailed by Kuljić to manipulate match results.[6] After being accused of trying to manipulate 18 matches in the first two Austrian tiers, Kuljić was sentenced to five years in prison in autumn 2014.[7] He was released early in March 2017 for good conduct.[7]

Drug dealing

In September 2019 Kuljić was arrested for drug dealing. In December he was handed a one-year prison sentence with Kuljić stating that he had only been involved with drug dealing because of a cocaine addiction he was suffering from.[7]

Honours

References
  1. "Österreichs Torschützenkönige". www.oberliga-a.at. Archived from the original on 15 September 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2008.
  2. "Soccer-Austria's Kuljic caught up in new transfer dispute". Reuters. 5 July 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  3. FC Magna Wiener Neustadt Archived 28 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Sanel Kuljic spricht mit dem Ballesterer". Der Standard (in German). 5 February 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  5. "Austria boss axes experienced duo". BBC Sport. 28 May 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  6. Klinger, Nikolaus (13 November 2013). "Grödig-Spieler Taboga erpresst: Sanel Kuljic bleibt in Haft". Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  7. Tardent, Yves; Rey, Claudia (6 December 2019). "Sanel Kuljic und andere gefallenen Spitzensportler". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.