Marko Šimić (footballer, born 1988)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Marko Šimić (born 23 January 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Persija Jakarta. He was born in Rijeka, Croatia, and is 1.87 meters tall.

Šimić began his youth career with Rijeka and Dinamo Zagreb and has played for many clubs across Europe and Asia, including Daugava Daugavpils, Khimki, Lokomotiva Zagreb, Vasas, Ferencváros, Bełchatów, Mura 05, Inter Zaprešić, Pordenone, Becamex Bình Dương, Dong Thap, Long An, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka United, Persija Jakarta, and FK Radnički 1923 Kragujevac. He joined Negeri Sembilan in early 2017, moved to Melaka United later that year, and signed with Persija Jakarta in December 2017.

With Persija Jakarta, Šimić helped win the 2018 Liga 1 title. In the same year, he starred in the Indonesia President's Cup, being named Best Player and top scorer with 11 goals. He scored a hat-trick in the AFC Cup against Tampines Rovers (early 2018) and added a four-goal haul against Johor Darul Ta’zim (April 2018). He became the first player in the competition to score a hat-trick twice and a quadruple in a single tournament. He also won the 2019 Liga 1 Golden Boot with 28 goals. In 2021 he scored Persija’s 50th goal for the club.

In his first spell with Persija (2018–2022) he scored 61 goals in 91 league appearances. He left Persija in 2022 after a salary cut during the league pause, had a brief stint with FK Radnički 1923 in Serbia, and then returned to Persija in 2023 on a two-year contract. In his second spell, he has added 16 goals in 51 appearances, including a match where he scored his 99th and 100th Persija goals.

Internationally, Šimić has represented Croatia at youth levels, playing for the U19, U20 and U21 teams, scoring 3 goals for the U21 side.