Lucic: Teddy Mark Sime (Teddy)

2002-2003 (Player Details)

Left Back

Born: Biskopsgaard, Sweden: 15-04-1973

Debut: v Liverpool (h): 19-10-2002

6’1 1/2” 11st 13 1/2lb (2003)

Lucic, who is qualified to play for his native Sweden and Finland (mother) and Croatia (father), started with Lunby, from 1989-1992, and then Vastra Frolunda, from 1993-1995, before joining IFK Gothenburg where he came to prominence, winning a Swedish League Championship with them in 1996. He scored twice in fifty-eight appearances in his three season stay and established himself in the Swedish national team before leaving for Italian football with Bologna in July 1998. He was with the Italian club until July 2000 when he joined AIK Solna in his native Sweden, but in that time he only made nine appearances. Back on his native soil he was able to get more regular football and he scored four times in fifty-eight games before he was taken by Terry Venables on loan to Leeds for the 2002-03 season in which United struggled, but Lucic proved his worth as a versatile defender either at left-back or in central defence. He joined German club Bayer Laverkusen in May 2003 for £267,000. Again he was used as a back-up player only managing eleven appearances in his first season but none in the second before he left in May 2005. He went back to Sweden once more, this time with BK Hacken, where he scored eight goals in seventy appearances and then joined IFS Elsborg Boras in January 2008 for £169,100 on a three year contract and has since scored three goals in fifty-eight appearances. First making his debut against Brazil in 1995, Lucic has amassed eighty-six caps for Sweden, mostly as a left back but also in central defence. He also gained eighteen Under-Twenty-one caps and Youth honours for Sweden. He appeared in the 1994, 2002 and 2006 World Cups and in European Cup final stages in 2000 and 2004. Despite his veteran status, Lucic was still relatively speedy across the pitch and a powerhouse at the centre of the defence. He was also a consistent performer and will be missed in the Sweden squad after he hung up his international boots following the finals in Germany.