Dario Šimić (; born 12 November 1975) is a Croatian former footballer. Šimić was a versatile defender who played as full-back, sweeper or centre back; a physical and hard-tackling defender, he was known in particular for his strength and ability in the air. A product of Dinamo Zagreb Academy, he later played for Serie A sides Inter Milan and AC Milan and Ligue 1 side Monaco, before returning to Dinamo Zagreb in 2010, where he retired from the game during the same year.
Šimić played for Croatia national football team between 1996 and 2008. He retired from international football shortly after becoming the first Croatian player to win 100 international caps. He is currently the team's eighth most capped player. He was a member of Croatia's squad for each of the six major tournaments for which the team qualified during the 1990s and 2000s, which includes three FIFA World Cups (11 appearances in 1998, 2002 and 2006) and three UEFA European Championships (5 appearances in 1996, 2004 and 2008).
Club career
Under coach Marcello Lippi, Šimić made his Serie A debut for Inter Milan in a 2–0 victory against Venezia at San Siro on 10 January 1999. By the end of his first season in Italy, Šimić earned a total of 17 appearances and scored 2 goals for Internazionale. In the following couple of seasons, Šimić's services were regularly used until the 2001–02 season, when he had only 12 league and 8 European appearances. and in June 2002 Internazionale and their cross-city rivals AC Milan agreed a player swap with Ümit Davala going in the opposite direction, which Šimić was valued €16.5 million, despite it was purely accounting purpose. In his years with Internazionale, he earned a total of 66 league appearances and scored three goals. The club failed to win any silverware in this period, and their highest finish was fourth place in the 1999–2000 season, even though this was the time when some of football's biggest stars played there with Šimić, such as Roberto Baggio, Ronaldo, Ivan Zamorano, Diego Simeone and Christian Vieri.
In August 2008, Šimić moved to Monaco.
On 27 April 2010, Šimić returned to Dinamo Zagreb on a free transfer, after having spent eleven years playing abroad. However, Šimić went on to announce his retirement from active football only three months later on 10 August 2010. During the short spell Šimić appeared in 3 competitive matches for the Blues, including the 2010 Croatian Supercup, and two European away matches against Koper and Sheriff Tiraspol, without ever appearing in the 2010–11 Prva HNL. In his announcement, Šimić said that he enrolled at the coaching academy and confirmed that his future plans involved staying in football, possibly as a manager.
Personal life
Šimić is a devout Catholic and organizes pilgrimages. He is the owner of Aquaviva company. He married Jelena Medić in 2000 with whom he has sons Roko, Viktor, Nikolas and David, the latter of whom has Down syndrome.
He is the older brother of Josip Šimić and a distant relative of Herzegovinian hajduk Andrijica Šimić.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! colspan=3 | Club performance
! colspan=2 | League
! colspan=2 | Cup<sup>1</sup>
! colspan=2 | League Cup
! colspan=2 | Continental
! colspan=2 | Total
|-
! Season
! Club
! League
! Apps !! Goals
! Apps !! Goals
! Apps !! Goals
! Apps !! Goals
! Apps !! Goals
|-
! colspan=3 |Croatia
! colspan=2 | League
! colspan=2 | Croatian Cup
! colspan=2 | League Cup
! colspan=2 | Europe
! colspan=2 | Total
|-
|1992–93||rowspan="7"|Croatia Zagreb||rowspan="7"|Prva HNL||6||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||7||0
|-
|1993–94||19||2||6||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||25||2
|-
|1994–95||22||1||8||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0||31||1
|-
|1995–96||26||2||8||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||34||3
|-
|1996–97||25||6||6||2||colspan="2"|-||4||1||35||9
|-
|1997–98||29||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||9||1||40||3
|-
|1998–99||13||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||8||0||21||1
|-
! colspan=3 |Italy
! colspan=2 | League
! colspan=2 | Coppa Italia
! colspan=2 | League Cup
! colspan=2 | Europe
! colspan=2 | Total
|-
|1998–99||rowspan="4"|Internazionale Milano||rowspan="10"|Serie A||15||2||6||0||colspan="2"|-||6||0||27||2
|-
|1999–2000||19||1||3||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||22||1
|-
|2000–01||18||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||4||1||24||1
|-
|2001–02||12||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||8||0||21||0
|-
|2002–03||rowspan="6"|Milan||29||1||3||0||colspan="2"|-||13||0||45||1
|-
|2003–04||10||0||6||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||18||0
|-
|2004–05||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||3||0
|-
|2005–06||15||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||21||0
|-
|2006–07||22||0||6||0||colspan="2"|-||6||0||34||0
|-
|2007–08||4||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0||7||0
|-
! colspan=3 |France
! colspan=2 | League
! colspan=2 | Coupe de France
! colspan=2 | Coupe de la Ligue
! colspan=2 | Europe
! colspan=2 | Total
|-
|2008–09||rowspan="2"|Monaco||rowspan="2"|Ligue 1||27||0||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||30||0
|-
|2009–10||0||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0
|-
! colspan=3 |Croatia
! colspan=2 | League
! colspan=2 | Croatian Cup
! colspan=2 | League Cup
! colspan=2 | Europe
! colspan=2 | Total
|-
|2010–11||Dinamo Zagreb||Prva HNL||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||3||0
|-
!rowspan=3| Country !!colspan=2| Croatia
!140||14||32||3||colspan="2"|-||24||2||164||16
|-
!colspan=2|Italy
!146||4||34||0||colspan="2"|-||42||1||222||5
|-
!colspan=2|France
!27||0||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||30||0
|-
!colspan=3|Total
!313||18||69||3||1||0||66||3||449||24
|}
:<small><sup>1 </sup>Played in Croatian Cup and Croatian Super Cup with Dinamo Zagreb.</small>
:<small><sup>2 </sup>Played in UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and UEFA Cup with Croatia Zagreb, Internazionale Milano and Milan.</small>
International
:Source:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!colspan=3|Croatia national team
|-
!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|1996||5||0
|-
|1997||8||0
|-
|1998||13||1
|-
|1999||7||0
|-
|2000||5||0
|-
|2001||8||0
|-
|2002||6||0
|-
|2003||10||1
|-
|2004||8||0
|-
|2005||5||0
|-
|2006||11||1
|-
|2007||9||0
|-
|2008||5||0
|-
!Total||100||3
|}
International goals
{| class="wikitable"
! # !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
|-
|1. || 10 October 1998 || National Stadium, Ta' Qali, Ta' Qali, Malta || || align="center"|1–1 || align="center"|4–1 || UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
|-
|2. || 10 September 2003 || King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium || || align="center"|1–1 || align="center"|1–2 || UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
|-
|3. || 1 March 2006 || St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland || || align="center"|3–2 || align="center"|3–2 || Friendly
|}
Honours
Club
Dinamo Zagreb
- Croatian First League: 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98
- Croatian Football Cup: 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98
- Croatian Super Cup: 2010
Milan
- Serie A: 2003–04
- Coppa Italia: 2002–03
- UEFA Champions League: 2002–03, 2006–07
- UEFA Super Cup: 2003
- FIFA Club World Cup: 2007
International
Croatia
- FIFA World Cup Third place – Bronze medal: 1998
Individual
- Croatian Football Hope of the Year: 1995
- UEFA awards 100 caps: 2011
Orders
- 50px Order of the Croatian Interlace – 1998
See also
- List of footballers with 100 or more caps