Zlatko Zahovič
Slovenian attacking midfielder and all-time national team top scorer, known for his dribbling and goal-scoring ability.
Zlatko Zahovič (born 1 February 1971) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. After making a name for himself in Portugal, most notably with Porto and Benfica where he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 246 matches and 54 goals over one full decade, he went on to have brief stints in Spain and Greece. He was known for dribbling and goal-scoring ability alike. Although primarily a midfielder, he scored 11 goals in 32 Champions League appearances and 35 in 80 for the Slovenian national team. The all-time record holder in goals for Slovenia, Zahovič was an essential member of the squad as they qualified for the first time ever to a European Championship and a World Cup, in the early 2000s.
Quick Facts
- Club tenure
- 1995 – 2003 (but not at Bayer Leverkusen)
Lore & Background
Zahovič was born in Maribor, SFR Yugoslavia. In 1989, at the age of 18, he was noticed by Partizan's Milko Ǵurovski, at the time doing his mandatory military service in the town, who recommended the youngster to the club. With the Belgrade team, he was relatively used over the course of three seasons, and also played on loan for Mladost Petrinja and Proleter Zrenjanin. For Partizan, he made 15 appearances and scored three goals during the 1992–93 league season as they won the national championship. In the summer of 1993, aged 22, Zahovič moved to Portugal and joined Vitória de Guimarães. On matchday 32 of the 1995–96 campaign, he scored the winning goal in a 3–2 away win over FC Porto. This performance convinced the former to sign him that summer, after an acrimonious transfer saga; he led his side to two UEFA Cup qualifications during his three-year spell. Zahovič was equally important while at Porto, forming a formidable attacking partnership with Capucho, Ljubinko Drulović and Mário Jardel and winning three consecutive league titles whilst rarely missing a match. In his last year he netted a career-best goals, and 22 across all competitions. He added seven during the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, thus finishing third in the competition's scoring charts behind FC Dynamo Kyiv's Andriy Shevchenko and Dwight Yorke of Manchester United, who both scored eight – the northerners, however, did not make it past the group stage. In 1999, Zahovič signed for Olympiacos F.C. for a transfer fee of €13.5 million, at the time the highest sum ever paid for a Slovenian footballer. However, his season in Greece was marred by fines and suspension. Zahovič first fell out with the club's head coach, Dušan Bajević, for returning late from a holiday. In November 1999, as Olympiacos failed to progress out of the UEFA Champions League group stage, head coach Bajević was sacked and replaced with Alberto Bigon. Zahovič's relationship with the incoming head coach was similarly fraught, as the player questioned the coach's tactics. Years later, Zahovič claimed in interviews that the real reason for his contentious season at Olympiacos was the club's continual refusal to properly set up his legal and administrative status in Greece as a professional athlete.
Reader's Guide
Zahovič's son, Luka, is also a footballer. A striker, he too represented Slovenia at international level. When Luka scored a late equaliser in a Champions League group stage match between Maribor and Sporting CP, on 17 September 2014, the two became only the second father and son pair – first among Europeans – to have both scored in the competition since 1992 when the competition was established under its current name. In his young years, Zahovič played chess and practised ski jumping.
More in Legendary Players & Icons
Elsewhere in Bayer Leverkusen
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced