Ivica Vastić (born September 29, 1969) is a Croatian-born Austrian football midfielder, formerly a striker, who currently plays for LASK Roland Linz.

Playing career

Born in Split, Vastić started to play for local clubs Jugovinil (today GOŠK Adriachem) and RNK Split before moving to Austria and joining First Vienna FC in 1991. He subsequently also played for VSE St. Pölten and Admira Wacker Mödling in Austria, and also had a short spell with German Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg, where he only made 10 league appearances without scoring a goal.

His most notable spell was with Sturm Graz between 1994 and 2002, during which he helped the club winning the Austrian Bundesliga two consecutive times in 1998 and 1999, as well as winning the Austrian Cup in 1996, 1997 and 1999. With the club, he also played in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League in the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 seasons of the competition.

He left Sturm for a one-season spell with Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight, after which he returned to Austria to spend two seasons with Austria Wien before joining his current club, LASK Roland Linz, in the summer of 2005. He performed well for LASK in the Erste Liga, the Austrian second division, and was the top goalscorer of the league in two consecutive seasons, scoring a total of 42 goals in 62 league appearances between 2005 and 2007. After helping LASK winning promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga in 2007, he went on to help the club finish sixth in the 2007/2008 Austrian Bundesliga season and himself finished the season as the club’s top goalscorer in the league, having netted 13 goals in 32 appearances.

Vastić became an Austrian national in 1996 and subsequently started to play for the Austrian national team, winning up to this time a total of 46 caps and scoring 12 goals. He was named the Austrian footballer of the year in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2007, and became the top goalscorer of the Austrian Bundesliga in 1996 and 2000. Vastić also appeared in all of the Austrian team’s three group matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals in France and scored a last-minute equaliser in the team’s second match at the tournament, a 1-1 draw against Chile. The Austrians were eliminated from the tournament in the first round after recording two draws and one defeat.

On 24 April 2008, Vastić was surprisingly added to Austria’s preliminary squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 finals co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland in June. His last appearance for the national team prior to the call-up was more than two and a half years ago, on 17 August 2005 in their 2-2 draw in a friendly match against Scotland.