Nikica Jelavić
Croatian association football player
Nikica Jelavić (Croatian pronunciation: [nîkitsa jělaʋitɕ]; born 27 August 1985) is a Croatian football manager and former professional player who played as a forward. He is the manager of Croatian Football League club Lokomotiva.
Jelavić began his career with Croatian side Hajduk Split of the Prva HNL in 2002, before moving to Belgian Pro League club Zulte Waregem in 2007. A year later, he moved to Austrian Bundesliga club Rapid Wien. In 2010, he was signed by Rangers, with whom he won the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish League Cup in his first season. He moved to England with Everton in January 2012, and Hull City two years later.
Jelavić is a former Croatian international, debuting in 2009 and retiring in 2014. He represented the country at UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Club career
Early career
Jelavić was born in Čapljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia and started his youth career at his local side GOŠK Gabela, which plays in the Bosnian league system. His career took a more serious turn when he moved to the nearby cross-border club in Croatia, NK Neretva from the town of Metković, managed by Branko Gutić.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nikica Jelavić” as croatian association football player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as croatian association football player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q221233. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 2002, 2007 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nikica Jelavić” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.