Niko Kranjčar is an attacking midfielder who plays for English side Tottenham and Croatia. Kranjčar developed as a youth playing for Dinamo Zagreb and made his senior debut already at the age of 16. He quickly became one of the team’s key players and helped them win two Croatian cups and the Croatian league. Because of a dispute with the club’s management Kranjčar left for rivals Hajduk Split in 2005. With Split he won another Croatian league title. Concurrently he delivered some impressive performances for his national team when qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Championship, followed by equally impressive displays at the Championship. At the time his father Zlatko Kranjčar was the Croatian coach.
In August 2006 he signed for English club Portsmouth and made his Premier Leage debut away at Tottenham. The following season he won the FA Cup with Portsmouth. During the 2008-09 season Kranjčar stated his desire wanting away from Portsmouth, for a club with bigger ambitions. There were rumours that AS Monaco, Arsenal and Everton were all interested, but on 1 September 2009 he joined Tottenham Hotspur. A deciding factor was that ex-Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was at the club, in addition to his fellow Croatians Luka Modrić and Vedran Ćorluka. Kranjčar went on to play a huge part in Tottenham’s top-4 finish that season, earning them entry into the Champions League. He was the one to step into the playmaker role when Luka Modrić was out injured. In the start of the 2010-11 season Kranjčar has found himself on the Spurs bench because of a very competitive midfield, while he scored three goals in two matches for Croatia. For the time being he intends to stay at Spurs to battle it out for a place in the team. In the January transfer window Spurs accepted a bid from Werder Bremen but Kranjčar chose not to leave. On February 5th he came on as a substitute to score the match-winning goal in a 2-1 win against Bolton. The following week he was the match-winner in a 2-1 away win against Sunderland.