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19th August 2000, the opening day of the new English Premier League
season and Chelsea are leading London rivals West Ham 2-1 with twelve
minutes remaining. Dennis Wise fires a short pass at Mario Stanic which
skips into the air off the shin of the Croatian. As quick as a flash,
Stanic moves onto the ball, flicks it up twice on his instep and fires
an outrageous 30-yard volley into the top corner of the net. Not a bad
way to introduce yourself to your new supporters. A more typical soaring
header from a corner in the last minute of the game gave Stanic a brace
on his league debut and put the seal on a 4-2 victory. The midfielder -
signed from Italian club Parma that summer for £5.6m - made his first
appearance for the Londoners at Wembley in the Charity Shield defeat of
Manchester United six days before the West Ham match, but an injury
sustained at Aston Villa, in just his third game for the Blues, set the
tone for a Stamford Bridge career ravaged by fitness problems.
By the
time he was fit to return, after a five-month lay-off, Chelsea had a new
manager, Claudio Ranieri having replaced compatriot Gianluca Vialli,
but Ranieri was only able to give Stanic ten more appearances before he
succumbed yet again to injury. Fully fit for the start of the new
campaign, Mario came off the subs' bench to slide home a last-minute
goal in a 2-0 win over Southampton in August, but he fell from favour
and was at risk of becoming something of a forgotten man when he
suddenly resurfaced mid-season and performed solidly in a variety of
roles - including both full-back positions - as he reinvented himself as
a utility player of some repute. It was a role that he continued to
build on throughout Chelsea's impressive 2002/03 campaign, and his goals
and assists proved crucial as the Blues achieved Champions League
qualification. A tremendous piece of foraging to create a goal for
Gianfranco Zola at Blackburn was followed by two strikes of his own,
both coming in consecutive victories over Everton, one in the League Cup
and the other in the Premiership.
Like the buses, Mario's goals that
season always came in twos, and he took his tally for the campaign to
four with headers in consecutive early-Spring victories over West
Bromwich Albion and Manchester City. Having battled hard to overcome his
injury nightmare, Mario's final season was one of total depression. His
most significant impact was as a substitute in a League Cup tie against
Notts County, where he created a goal for Joe Cole, but he failed to
make the starting line-up for the Blues in any competition - although he
could often be seen supporting the side enthusiastically from the
players' tunnel - and his late run-out on the final day of the season
against Leeds was just his second Premiership appearance of the
campaign. It was his last game for the club.
Despite being included in
Jose Mourinho's initial squad, Mario met with the new manager in the
summer of 2004 and regrettably announced that he no longer felt able to
continue playing professional football, retiring from the game at the
age of 32. (Kelvin Barker)
Senior career
1988–1992 Željezničar 63 (12)
1992–1993 Croatia Zagreb 26 (11)
1993–1994 Sporting Gijón 34 (7)
1994–1995 Benfica 14 (5)
1995–1996 Club Brugge 37 (27)
1996–2000 Parma 77 (19)
2000–2004 Chelsea 59 (7)
Total 310 (88)
National teams:
1991 Yugoslavia 2 (0)
1993 Croatia U21 2 (1)
1995–2003 Croatia 49 (7)
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