Branimir Subašić

Branimir Subašić (Serbian Cyrillic: Бранимир Субашић, Azerbaijani: Branimir Subaşiç born April 7, 1982) is a Serbian-born Azerbaijani international footballer who currently plays as a striker for the Serbian club OFK Beograd. From 2007 to 2013, he played for the Azerbaijan national football team.

Club career

First years (1998–2005)

Branimir Subasic started his youth career in 1997 in FK Železnik when he was 15 years old. The next year in 1998 he signed a deal with this club and became a professional footballer. He played there until 2002 and afterwards moved to FK Sremčica on loan. At the end of the season he moved to KV Oostende. He played in 14 games and scored 3 goals in that season. In 2003 he played in AS Beauvais Oise for a half year. In 2003 he signed a 2-year deal with Chernomorets Odessa. In 2 seasons he played only 7 games and scored once. In 2005 he moved to Russian Premier League club Amkar Perm on loan where he played 6 games and scored one goal.

Neftchi PFC (2005–2008)

In the summer of 2005 Branimir Subasic moved to Azerbaijan Premier League champion Neftchi Baku. In his first appearance against R.S.C. Anderlecht in the UEFA Cup he gained a penalty and helped his team to have a victory with score 1–0. After that in January 2006 Neftchi Baku played in the CIS Cup. In that year Neftchi Baku won the trophy and Branimir Subasich scored 3 goals in the tournament. In the next 3 years playing in Neftchi Baku Branimir Subasich won the CIS Cup in 2006, won a silver medal in Azerbaijan Premier League in 2006/2007 and a bronze medal in seasons 2005/2006 and 2007/2008. Overall he had 65 matches and 31 goals. Also in 2007 he got Azerbaijan citizenship and started to play for the Azerbaijan National Football Team.

Red Star Belgrade (2008–2010)

In the summer of 2008, Subašić was transferred back to his native Serbia joining Belgrade club FK Crvena Zvezda (Red Star). He played in 2008 in 11 games scoring 3 goals. In March 2009 Branimir moved to Chinese club Changchun Yatai on loan. In the Chinese Super League Branimir Subasic scored 3 goals in 24 games. Changchun Yatai took the silver medals in the 2009 Chinese Super League. After that he returned to Red Star Belgrade and ended the season in Serbia.

Return to Azerbaijan (2010–2013)

Branimir left Red Star Belgrad in May 2010 and moved to Azerbaijan. A few weeks after his arrival Tony Adams invited Branimir to his team. Branimir Subasic joined Gabala FC at the beginning of the 2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League season. He played well in his opening match and was even called to the Azerbaijan National Football Team, but he got an injury in November 2010 and missed a few matches for Gabala. When the second part of the Premier League began Branimir started to play as the attacking midfielder. Overall Branimir Subasic played 19 games in which he scored 2 goals and left Gabala FC in the end of the season because of the expired contract.

After leaving Gabala FC, Branimir Subasic moved to FK Khazar Lankaran at the beginning of the 2011–12 Azerbaijan Premier League season. In his opening match against Turan Tovuz PFC Bane scored two goals. On December 23, 2011 Branimir became the 5th foreign top goal scorer of the Azerbaijan Premier League with 38 goals. Overall Branimir Subasic played 30 matches in that season and scored 7 goals. Khazar Lankaran took the second place in 2011–12 Azerbaijan Premier League season. In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League Khazar Lankaran played against JK Nõmme Kalju. Branimir scored in both matches (2-2; 0-2). Branimir also scored in a match against Lech Poznań at the second qualification stage match (1-1). However Khazar Lankaran lost the second match (0-1) and left the competition. Overall Branimir Subasic scored 3 goals in 4 matches in the Europe league. In the first match of the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Premier League against Ravan Baku FC Branimir scored again. He scored his second goal in the Azerbaijani Premier League in the 2012-2013 season at the 24 November 2012 against Kapaz PFC. His third goal was in the match against AZAL PFC. After that, Branimir Subasic became the 3rd most goal scoring foreign-born player of the Azerbaijan Premier League with 42 goals. On 31 December 2012 Branimir Subasic's contract with Khazar Lankaran expired. On 11 January 2013, it was announced that Branimir Subasic was not going to get a new contract offer.^[1] Subasic left Khazar Lankaran with 14 goals scored in 51 caps.

Later on 21 January 2013 Subasic moved to Qarabağ FK till the end of the 2012-2013 season. Branimir played only 8 matches because of a 2 month long injury. Qarabagh took second place in the 2012–13 Azerbaijan Premier League season and Bane left the team after the end of season.

Turkey career (2013–present)

In June Subasic signed a 2-year deal with Turkish club Orduspor, playing in the TFF First League. He played in Orduspor with shirt number 20 for the 2013-2014 season. Branimir Subasic debuted for Orduspor in the 1st week of the championship in a match against Adanaspor and played 90 minutes also in the 2nd match. He scored his first goal on 15 September in a match against Karşıyaka S.K. in the 3rd week; Orduspor won that match and it was the only goal in the game. Subasic became one of the main players of Orduspor and played in the centre forward position in the starting squad in almost all of the games. In the 2013-14 season Subasic made 30 appearances in PTT 1.Lig in which he scored 8 goals. In total he played 34 games in the season and scored 9 goals, thus became the 3rd most scoring player of the team. Orduspor took the 3rd place in PTT 1.Lig in 2013-2014 season, however Orduspor lost its play-off matches and could not advance to Turkish Super League.

In July 2014, Branimir Subasic determined his contract with Orduspor and transferred to another Turkish club, Manisaspor. He played for Manisaspor in the PTT league in the 2014-15 season.

International career

In 2007 during his time with PFC Neftchi he gained citizenship and became a member of the Azerbaijan national football team after many Serbian coaches told him his chances of making the Serbian team were slim. He started his international career for Azerbaijan in March 2007 during Alma TV Cup. He scored his first international goal at his opening game with Uzbekistan. Until June 29, 2009 when he retired from international career he played 26 games for Azerbaijan and scored 6 goals becoming second most scoring player in Azerbaijan National Football Team after Gurban Gurbanov.^[2] But in 2011 he returned to the Azerbaijan national football team.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	March 7, 2007	Shymkent, Kazakhstan	Uzbekistan	0–1	Win	Friendly
2.	June 2, 2007	Baku, Azerbaijan	Poland	1–3	Lost	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
3.	August 22, 2007	Dushanbe, Tajikistan	Tajikistan	2–3	Win	Friendly
4.	September 12, 2007	Baku, Azerbaijan	Georgia	1–1	Draw	Friendly
5.	June 4, 2008	Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Andorra	1–2	Win	Friendly
6.	November 19, 2008	Baku, Azerbaijan	Albania	1–1	Draw	Friendly
7.	August 15, 2012	Baku, Azerbaijan	Bahrain	3–0	Win	Friendly

Career statistics

Club statistics

Statistics accurate as of 16 December 2015

National team statistics

^[3]

Honours

Azerbaijan Premier League

• Second place (3) – 2012-13, 2011-12, 2006-07
• Third Place (2) – 2007-08, 2005-06

TFF First League

• Third place – 2013-14

Serbian SuperLiga

• Second place – 2009-10
• Third place - 2008-09

Serbian Cup

• Champion – 2010

Chinese Super League

• Second place – 2009

Commonwealth of Independent States Cup

• Champion – 2006

Personal

• 2011–12 Azerbaijan Premier League top Azerbaijani goal scorer (8 goals) – 2012
• Azerbaijani Footballer of the Year runner-up – 2007, 2008, 2012
• Azerbaijan Premier League best striker – 2007

References

External links

• Official page
• Branimir Subašić at National-Football-Teams.com
• International goals

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Branimir Subašić.