Vladimir Vasilj

Who is Vladimir Vasilj?

Vladimir Vasilj is a former Croatian football goalkeeper.

He was born in Hanover and started his professional career at Croatian club Hrvatski Dragovoljac in the 1995-96 season. He continued to play for the club in the following three seasons, being their first-choice goalkeeper in two of the three seasons.

In the spring of 1998, he became the Croatian national team's third-choice goalkeeper and was also named to the final 22-man squad for the 1998 World Cup finals in France, but did not play any matches at the tournament where Croatia surprisingly finished third. Prior to the World Cup, he made his international debut by appearing as a substitute goalkeeper in the second half of Croatia's friendly match against Slovakia played on 29 May 1998 in Pula.

He left Hrvatski Dragovoljac for Dinamo Zagreb in the summer of 1998, but was merely the club's third-choice goalkeeper and managed to make only two domestic league appearances in the following two seasons. He became the club's second-choice goalkeeper after Dražen Ladić's retirement in May 2000 and made three domestic league appearances in the 2000-01 season before transferring to Dinamo's local rivals NK Zagreb for the 2001-02 season. He played for the club in the following two seasons and was their first-choice goalkeeper in both of them, also playing a significant role in the Zagreb team that surprisingly won the Croatian First League champions title in 2002.