At the request of a friend, let's talk about Viduka.
Mark Anthony Viduka was born on 9 October 1975 in a migrant community in Melbourne, Australia. Their community is made up of Croatian immigrants. As for the immigrants, in their distant hometowns, they basically have relatives. And the relatives of Viduka's family happen to be Modric's family. Although Viduka and Modric are far from each other in terms of appearance and size, they are indeed true cousins. This is something that has been confirmed by the media for a long time, and it is not some gossip from the roadside club.
I have to say that their bloodline and football talent are really outstanding. Needless to say, Modric, who is the winner of the Ballon d'Or, is definitely a historical player. And Modric's cousin, Viduka, also deserves to be evaluated as talented. His figure is called a strong one, and playing with the opposing defender is simply not a problem for him, and he is a natural center forward. As early as the age of 6, he joined the Croatian football club known as Melbourne at the time.
From the name of the club, it is not difficult to imagine that the club is basically made up of Croatian immigrants and descendants of immigrants. In addition to Viduka, another player who has been linked to Croatia is Simunic, who has also played at the club.
A few years later, the Melbourne Croatian club changed its name to the Melbourne Knights. Viduka has played at this club since he was a child, and it was only natural that he made his debut at this club. With his physical advantage, Viduka has made a big splash in the Australian league, which is not too high-level, not only helping the club win the league championship, but also winning the league's Golden Boot, Best Player and other awards.
The boring days of chopping melons and vegetables in the Australian University League made Viduka gradually feel like he was alone, so he wanted to go out and have a look. At this time, Tudjman, who was at the helm of Croatia at the time, visited Australia and paid a special visit to Viduka, a footballer with Croatian blood, and sent them an invitation to play in the Croatian league.
It was because of Tudjman's warm invitation that Viduka stepped onto the stage of the Croatian league and wore the jersey of the Croatian Zagreb team. It stands to reason that this is a very meaningful transfer and should be strongly supported by the local fans. However, because Tudjman did not greet the team's coach before inviting Viduka and other players, in the eyes of some fans, Viduka is just a related account of the team, and he is quite unpopular with Viduka.
Even though Viduka performed well during his time with Zagreb, Croatia, there were still some fans who looked at him with tinted glasses and attacked him at the slightest problem. As we all know, no matter how strong a professional player is, if the fans insist on finding faults, they will definitely be able to find faults. Even the Golden Ball winners at their peak can be picked out by the fans, let alone Viduka?
Always picking bones from human eggs, Viduka is naturally unhappy. What's more, some people's hostility towards Viduka has long gone beyond the scope of football and has risen to the level of fairy fights, and once even threatened Viduka's personal safety. He was terrified even when he went out to eat normally.
Mixed up in Croatia to this point, Viduka naturally wanted to run away. In the summer of 1998, Celtic, Scotland's long-established club, extended an olive branch to him, and Viduka ran away in a panic. He would rather give Larsson a hand than stay in the Croatian league.
Because of Larsson's existence, Viduka is shown as a wingman most of the time, and his presence is not too strong. However, in the 1999-00 season, when Larsson was unfortunately seriously injured, Viduka, who had a surge in role, successfully replaced Larsson, scored 27 goals in the league and won the league's golden boot.
The Scottish league's golden boot will naturally attract the attention of Premier League clubs. In the summer of 2000, Leeds United spent £6 million in real money to recruit Viduka.
With hindsight, it was clearly a successful transfer. But going back to the summer of the deal, the deal raised a lot of questions. It's not that the media and fans think that the Scottish League Golden Boot is not worth 6 million pounds, but that the Leeds United forward line at that time already had Bridges, who scored 19 goals in the Premier League in the 1999-00 season, and was a popular fried chicken in English football. Against this backdrop, Leeds United's introduction of Viduka will naturally be questioned.
From a technical and tactical point of view, whether Bridges and Viduka can coexist is actually a question mark. In fact, the two did work together for a while, and it didn't work out well. Bridges, who had scored a lot of goals before, did go silent at the beginning of the 2000-01 season.
If this trend continues, then it will definitely be Viduka who is unlucky. The reason is simple, because Bridges is not only young, but also a homegrown player in England, and has proven himself in the Premier League. How can there be a reason to exclude their own children for the sake of outsiders?
However, at this very juncture, Bridges was suddenly seriously injured, still that devastating serious injury. There is no longer a need to study whether Bridges and Viduka can coexist, and they can only hold their noses and trust Viduka.
And Viduka is also very competitive, he managed to take Bridges' gun and kill all sides in the Premier League. In 2000/01, Viduka's first season in the Premier League, he not only scored 17 goals, but also played a senior against Liverpool.
Viduka's four goals were a deft shot from the goalkeeper, a kick shot after flashing past a defender, a low shot after tossing and turning in the crowd, and a lob shot past the goalkeeper and Carragher.
These four goals fully demonstrated Viduka's attacking talent. Not only can he use his strong body to open a bloody path, but he can also play with the opponent's defenders lightly in a way that is really unguardable.
His physical prowess, his attacking style, and even his experience of living in Australia as a teenager, resembled Vieri, a super-center who was in full swing at the time. Against this backdrop, many media outlets simply gave the nickname "Australian Vieri" to Viduka. At the same time, because he plays in the Premier League, some media call him "Premier League Vieri".
What is quite interesting is that Viduka, who can be called Vieri in the Premier League, has even attracted the attention of Vieri's owner Inter Milan, and there were rumors that the Nerazzurri planned to bring in Viduca, but unfortunately it failed to materialize.
All in all, Viduka was definitely an excellent striker in his prime. It's just that, like Vieri, Viduka has the same problem of lack of self-discipline. The latter is a flower bush, and the former is a poor diet. As a direct result, Viduka did not become an evergreen tree like his cousin Modric, and he fell seriously before the age of 30, which is embarrassing......