| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1970-04-23)23 April 1970 (age 54) | ||
| Place of birth | Varaždin,Croatia | ||
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Kustošija (manager) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1988–1998 | NK Varaždin | 150 | (2) |
| 1998–2002 | VfL Bochum | 65 | (3) |
| 2002–2003 | NK Varaždin | 22 | (0) |
| Total | 237 | (5) | |
| International career | |||
| 1994 | Croatia | 2 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2003–2005 | Varteks (youth) | ||
| 2005–2007 | Varteks (assistant) | ||
| 2010–2011 | Varaždin | ||
| 2011–2012 | Cibalia | ||
| 2012–2013 | Gorica | ||
| 2013–2014 | Zelina | ||
| 2014–2019 | Inter Zaprešić | ||
| 2020 | Varaždin | ||
| 2021 | Lokomotiva Zagreb | ||
| 2022 | Gorica | ||
| 2023 | Kustošija | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Samir Toplak (born 23 April 1970) is a Croatian professionalfootballmanager and formerplayer who is the current manager ofCroatian First Football League clubKustošija.
Born inVaraždin, Toplak spent most of his playing and managerial career at his hometown clubVarteks.
Toplak started his career withVarteks, inVaraždin, and spent the first ten seasons of his career there. After proving himself to be one of the best defenders in the top levelPrva HNL, Toplak transferred to GermanBundesliga clubVfL Bochum.[1] He spent four seasons in Germany, where the club floated between first and second division. Toplak returned to Varteks in the summer of 2002, for the last season of his top-level football career.[1]
He played twofriendly matches forCroatia in 1994, againstSlovakia andIsrael.[2]
During his last two years as a player, Toplak had started working as a youth coach in theVarteks system. Upon retirement, he became a club director and became an assistant manager (2005–2007) with the senior team. In 2010, Toplak was hired as manager of the senior team, the same year that it changed its name to NK Varaždin. He led the relatively young team, consisting mainly of Varaždin's home grown players, to a successful2011–12 UEFA Europa League campaign, beatingFC Lusitanos andIskra-Stal before they were stopped in the third qualifying round by Romanian powerhouseDinamo București in a narrow two leg encounter. However, the success in UEFA play was soon overshadowed when the club went bankrupt and was demoted to the very bottom of theCroatian football league system.
In August 2011 Toplak took over another Prva HNL club,HNK Cibalia, fromVinkovci.[3] In the2011–12 Prva HNL season, Toplak led Cibalia to a top table position and thesemi-finals of the Croatian Cup. However, due to disagreements with the club's executive board, Toplak chose to leave Vinkovci in July 2012.
In December 2012, Toplak was appointed as manager ofHNK Gorica, a second-levelDruga HNL side located inVelika Gorica. Gorica's first half of the2012–13 Druga HNL season had been disastrous, and they finished the first half in the relegation zone. Toplak was hired to bring the club back to the top of the chart by the end of the season. After failing to move Gorica out of the relegation zone, Toplak resigned on 20 April 2013, six games before the end of the season (Gorica did avoid relegation when other teams dropped below them during those last six games).
After leaving Gorica, Toplak took over the managerial position for another Druga HNL side,NK Zelina, succeedingDražen Biškup.[4] After a disastrous2013–14 season, during which Zelina struggled on the bottom of the table, Toplak resigned in April 2014.
After, Toplak was hired by Druga HNL sideInter Zaprešić. Inter and Toplak's primary goal was to secure promotion to the Prva HNL, and this goal was accomplished by finishing as champion of the2014–15 season. They played in the Prva HNL the following season, their only goal being to avoid relegation. However, they exceeded their target by finishing the season in the middle of the league chart. The club played in the Prva HNL through the next four seasons, but during the first half of the2019–20 season, with the club in near the bottom (8th) of the league table, Toplak wassacked on 4 January 2020.[5]
On 10 February 2020, just a few weeks after leaving Inter Zaprešić, Toplak was hired to manage Prva HNL sideNK Varaždin (no relation to the long defunct Varteks/Varaždin club he previously worked with), which was at the bottom (10th) of the league table. Toplak was able to guide the team to an 8th-place finish, while Inter Zaprešić fell to last place and was relegated to Druga HNL for the 2020–21 season. Toplak was dismissed by Varaždin in December 2020.[6]
On 14 March 2021, he succeededJerko Leko as manager of Prva HNL sideLokomotiva Zagreb.[7] After another six-months spell atHNK Gorica in 2022,[8] he was appointed manager ofKustošija in March 2023.[9]
His given name happens to be Bosnian which has sometimes caused confusion, as his family is actually fromKneginec near Varaždin.[10]
In 1994 Toplak married his girlfriend of two years, Vesna. Two years later, they had their first daughter, Lana, and three years after that, while living inBochum, Germany, daughter Bianka was born. In 2004 Toplak settled down with his family in a small village outside ofVaraždin.
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| NK Varteks | 1992–93 | Prva HNL | 27 | 0 | ||||
| 1993–94 | 28 | 1 | ||||||
| 1994–95 | 29 | 0 | ||||||
| 1995–96 | 24 | 0 | ||||||
| 1996–97 | 14 | 0 | ||||||
| 1997–98 | 28 | 1 | ||||||
| Total | 150 | 2 | ||||||
| VfL Bochum | 1998–99 | Bundesliga | 23 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 1 |
| 1999–00 | 2. Bundesliga | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 1 | |
| 2000–01 | Bundesliga | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 2001–02 | 2. Bundesliga | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 1 | |
| Total | 65 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 69 | 3 | ||
| NK Varteks | 2002–03 | Prva HNL | 22 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 22 | 0 | ||||||
| Career total | 237 | 5 | ||||||
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Varaždin | 13 March 2010 | 12 August 2011 | 52 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 030.77 |
| Cibalia | 23 August 2011 | 15 July 2012 | 24 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 045.83 |
| Gorica | 1 December 2012 | 4 March 2013 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 022.22 |
| Zelina | 2 September 2013 | 17 March 2014 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 016.67 |
| Inter Zaprešić | 29 April 2014 | 10 January 2020 | 213 | 69 | 56 | 88 | 032.39 |
| Varaždin | 23 February 2020 | 7 December 2020 | 31 | 11 | 6 | 14 | 035.48 |
| Lokomotiva Zagreb | 14 March 2021 | 28 May 2021 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 027.27 |
| Gorica | 04 March 2022 | "Present" | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 027.27 |
| Total | 375 | 120 | 102 | 153 | 032.00 | ||
