Josip “Joe” Šimunić (born February 18 , 1978 ) is an Australian -Born Croatian central defender , a member of the Croatia national team .

Šimunić, born in Canberra , Australia , is of Bosnian Croat heritage. He received early football training at the Australian Institute of Sport . The defender broke into the Melbourne Knights first team as a teenager in the 1995–96 season and ended it with a championship medal. Šimunić scored his first goals the following term, three in 14 outings, before moving to Europe to join Hamburger SV in 1998.

Šimunić moved to Hertha BSC Berlin in 2000 after falling out with Hamburg coach Frank Pagelsdorf and has since become an integral member of a team which has enjoyed occasional forays in the UEFA Cup .

Despite his Australian-taxpayer-funded education at the AIS, he decided not to play for his country of birth and play his international football for Croatia (the country of his parent's birth) in October 2001, making his international debut in Croatia's friendly match against Korea Republic on 10 November 2001. Šimunić did not play in any of Croatia's qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup but was given a place in the squad for the finals after injury forced Igor Tudor out. He played all three of Croatia's matches in Korea and Japan. He also played in the Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup .

In a well-publicised incident, Šimunić was sent off in Croatia's final 2006 FIFA World Cup match against Australia. Having picked up a booking in the 61st minute, the referee Graham Poll took out a yellow card for Šimunić's tackle in the 90th minute, but did not actually send him off . However, at the conclusion of the game three minutes later, Šimunić remonstrated with Poll and received a third yellow card, this time followed by a red card. FIFA initially noted all three bookings in its match report, before later removing the 90th minute (second) booking. This prompted the removal of Poll from the knockout stages referee pool. Shortly after the World Cup, Poll retired from refereeing international games, citing this game as a direct cause. It should also be noted that Šimunić himself has faced some criticism for failing to remove himself from the pitch of play after the second card.

Upon the release of his autobiography in 2007, Poll revealed that, upon booking Simunic for the second time, he had erroneously recorded him as “ Australia #3”(who was defender Craig Moore ); Simunic, a Canberra -born Australian of Bosnian Croat parentage, speaks English with an Australian accent.

He is known for having great football technique, despite being centre-back. His national teammate Kranjcar says that “on a training he does feints like Ronaldinho”.

Chelsea FC reportedly were interested in buying Šimunić in January 2007, but no move materialized.

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