Bruno Petković


Bruno Petković is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Dinamo Zagreb and the Croatia national team.

Early career

Petković was born in Metković, Croatia. His childhood football idols were Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović.
He began his youth career with his hometown clubs :hr:ONK Metković|ONK Metković and NK Neretva, before he went to Dinamo Zagreb in 2007. He remained there until 4 September 2009, when he transferred across town, to the youth academy of city-rivals NK Zagreb. In the next two seasons, he represented NK HAŠK and Hrvatski Dragovoljac, prior to his transfer to Italy, with Serie A side, Catania.

Club career

Calcio Catania

On 27 August 2012, Petković officially transferred to Calcio Catania. The transfer fee involved was undisclosed, though Petković was inserted directly into the club's youth academy following his arrival. His first call-up to the senior squad arrived on 27 January 2013, in a 2–1 home victory over Fiorentina in league play. His league debut came on the final matchday of the 2012–13 Serie A campaign, when he appeared as an 89th minute substitute in a 2–2 away draw with Torino. Ahead of the 2013–14 Serie A season, Petković was officially promoted to the first team, and assigned the number 32 jersey.

Trapani and Bologna

In January 2016, Petković moved to Serie B side Trapani. He scored seven goals in the second round of the Serie B season, as the Sicilian team nearly gained promotion to Serie A, failing only in the final play-off match against Pescara. The following season he scored three goals in the first round of the 2017–18 Serie B season. On 12 January 2017 Petković was purchased by Serie A team Bologna, for 1.2 million euros. He made total of 21 Serie A appearances for the team, before being loaned to Hellas Verona on 11 January 2018.

Dinamo Zagreb

2018–19 season

On 6 August 2018, he joined Dinamo Zagreb on a season-long loan with Dinamo holding an obligation to buy his contract out at the end of the loan if certain conditions are met. On 25 August, he scored his first goal for Dinamo in a 1–0 home win over NK Lokomotiva. As the season wore on, Petković became more important to the squad and played the starring role in the peak of Dinamo Zagreb season, the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League Round of 32 home fixture against Viktoria Plzeň, when he assisted the first goal and scored the third in the 3–0 win. In the Round of 16 home fixture against Benfica he scored the only goal in the 1–0 win. However, Benfica came back beating Dinamo 3–0 at Estádio da Luz after extra time. He finished his first season in the club with 11 goals and 5 assists in 37 matches in all competitions.

2019–20 season

Petković was instrumental to Dinamo Zagreb's successful Champions League qualifying campaign, scoring four goals against Saburtalo Tbilisi home and away, Ferencváros away, and Rosenborg home. His performances earned him a new contract with Dinamo, signed on 13 September 2019, which keeps him in the club until 2024.
He made his Champions League debut on 18 September 2019 in a 4–0 home win over Atalanta and scored his debut goal on 6 November in a 3–3 home draw with Shakhtar Donetsk.
On 17 June 2020, he scored a last minute goal in a 3–2 home victory over Slaven Belupo, the first home game of Dinamo's new coach Igor Jovićević.

International career

On 11 March 2019, he received his first senior Croatia call-up as a replacement for the injured Marko Pjaca. He made his debut on 21 March 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Azerbaijan. He scored his first goal for the national team on 11 June in a friendly loss to Tunisia.
He turned out to be instrumental to Croatia's successful UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, scoring four goals and assisting one. He finished the qualifiers as the group's top goalscorer.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

No.DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetition
111 June 2019Stadion Anđelko Herjavec, Varaždin, Croatia31–11–2Friendly
26 September 2019Anton Malatinský Stadium, Trnava, Slovakia43–04–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
310 October 2019Stadion Poljud, Split, Croatia62–03–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
410 October 2019Stadion Poljud, Split, Croatia63–03–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
516 November 2019Stadion Rujevica, Rijeka, Croatia82–13–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours

Club

Dinamo Zagreb