Biography
Domagoj Vida (born 29 April 1989) is a Croatian footballer who plays as a defender for Turkish club Besiktas and the Croatia national team. He is capable of playing in any defensive position but is mostly deployed as a centre-back or right full-back. Vida has spent his entire youth career in Croatia, rising through the Osijek youth system and being first featured with the senior team in the 2006-07 season, at the age of 17; he then went on to make 12 appearances in the season. In the 2007-08 season, Vida further solidified his credentials, being featured more regularly for his club. On 29 April 2010, Vida signed for German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen. He spent just one season with the club, making a total of eight appearances in the UEFA Europa League. He did not make his Bundesliga debut until 5 March 2011, when he came on as a substitute for the injured Manuel Friedrich in the 14th minute of a 3-0 win at home to VfL Wolfsburg. It turned out to be his only appearance in the league. On 14 June 2011, it was announced that Vida would join Dinamo Zagreb for an undisclosed fee. In December 2011, Dinamo Zagreb lost 7-1 against Lyon in the Champions League group stage which allowed the French club to progress to the last 16 of the Champions League at the expense of Ajax, who lost 3-0 against Real Madrid. Following media coverage alleging match-fixing which also showed clips of Vida winking after Lyon's fifth goal, UEFA decided not to take action. On 25 July 2012, Vida scored a 98th-minute goal against Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad in a UEFA Champions League match and thus helped his team to a 3-2 home win, which enabled it to progress to the competition's next round. On 24 September 2012, he was thrown out of the first team and the team bus after he opened up a beer while the team were on their way to a cup match. He also had several altercations with Dinamo head coach Ante Cacic prior to this incident. The next day, it was announced that he would be fined a record EUR100,000. On 2 January 2013, it was announced that Vida had signed for Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv on a five-year deal, for a reported transfer fee of EUR6 million. On 14 February, he made his debut for Dynamo in a home Europa League match against Bordeaux, which ended 1-1. A week later, he played in the tie's second leg and was unable to help Dynamo get to the round of 16, losing 0-1. In both games, Dynamo head coach Oleh Blokhin used him as a right-back. On 3 January 2018, Vida moved to Besiktas, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract. Vida made his Besiktas debut on 21 February 2018, in a 2-1 away win over Antalyaspor. Vida was sent off 16 minutes into his club's UEFA Champions League round of 16 match against Bayern Munich. Besiktas went on to lose the match 5-0. In June 2018, he was named in Croatia's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Vida scored a header in the quarter-final against hosts Russia to give his side a 2-1 lead in extra time. The match finished 2-2, Vida converted his spot kick in the penalty shootout to help his side advance. In the final, he took a free kick from Luka Modric to setup Ivan Perisic for Croatia's first goal of the match, and picked up a runners-up medal as France eventually defeated his side 4-2.
