Igor Tudor

Igor Tudor (born 16 April 1978) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Ligue 1 club Marseille.

Capable of playing either as a defender or defensive midfielder, Tudor spent most of his playing career at Juventus, winning several trophies during that time.

He also won several international caps for the Croatian under-17, under-19 and under-21 national teams between 1993 and 2000.

Tudor started his professional career at Hajduk Split in 1995 scoring 5 goals in 58 matches, being considered a revelation for his technique and ball control above the average of a defender.

Tudor played for the Croatia national team between 1997 and 2006.

Tudor made his debut in Croatia's final match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying, a 1–1 draw at Ukraine on 15 November 1997, coming on as a substitute for Aljoša Asanović in the 89th minute.

After three personally successful seasons at Hajduk, he was noticed and acquired by Italian giants Juventus in 1998.

He was subsequently part of the Croatian squad that finished third at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.

At the tournament, he made three appearances as a substitute in the closing stages of Croatia's games against Japan, Romania and the Netherlands.

After the 1998 World Cup, he made four appearances in the Croatian national team's unsuccessful qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 2000, being in the starting line-up on all four occasions.

During the 2000–01 season under Carlo Ancelotti, Tudor had a prolific year, scoring six goals.

The following season, with the return of his former Juventus coach Marcello Lippi, he was occasionally deployed as a midfielder, scoring four crucial goals (one against Torino in the Turin derby, two goals in Juventus' comebacks against Chievo and Hellas Verona and one during the match against title contenders Internazionale) in Juventus's successful Serie A title campaign.

During his time at the club, Tudor won two Serie A titles, two Italian Supercups, a Serie B title and a UEFA Intertoto Cup, also reaching the final of the 2001–02 Coppa Italia and 2002–03 Champions League.

During his time with Juventus, he won the Croatian Player of the Year award in 2002.

During his eight-year spell with the club, Tudor was in excellent form, despite injuries, and formed impressive defensive partnerships with the likes of Paolo Montero, Mark Iuliano, Gianluca Pessotto, Lilian Thuram, Ciro Ferrara, Alessandro Birindelli, Nicola Legrottaglie, Gianluca Zambrotta, Jonathan Zebina, Giorgio Chiellini and Fabio Cannavaro.

The following season, he also scored a notable goal against Deportivo de La Coruña in the last minute of a second round match of the 2002–03 Champions League, allowing the club to progress to the quarter finals of the competition, en route to the final, in which they were defeated by Italian rivals Milan on penalties.

During this period, Juventus had one of the strongest teams in the world, and Tudor contributed well, with over 150 total appearances for the club, scoring nearly 20 goals, as a centreback.

He also appeared in six matches during Croatia's qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup, but missed the final tournament in South Korea and Japan due to an injury.

He was a part of the Croatia national team at UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 and 1998 World Cup, but missed the 2002 World Cup due to injury.

After a major injury in 2004, however, Tudor was loaned out to Siena in January 2005 after seven seasons with Juve.

Following the revocation of Juventus' 2004–05 and 2005–06 Serie A titles due to their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal, as well as the expiration of his loan contract with Siena, Tudor returned to Juventus, staying with the club despite their relegation to Serie B, but injuries kept him off the pitch for the whole season.

He returned to the national team during the qualifying stages for Euro 2004, appearing in seven qualifying matches.

At the finals in Portugal, he appeared in two of Croatia's three group matches.

In his first appearance at the tournament, a 2–2 draw against France, he scored an own goal to put the French side 1–0 up midway through the first half.

His second appearance at the tournament came in Croatia's final group match against England, where he scored Croatia's second goal to keep their hopes alive after they found themselves 3–1 down in the second half.

Frank Lampard, however, soon netted England's fourth goal and Croatia were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage.

His contract expired on 30 June 2007.

Constantly struggling with injuries and mysterious bacterial infection of his ankle, Tudor was almost forced to end his career in 2007, but in June 2007 he decided to join his former club Hajduk Split after not renewing his contract with Juventus.

After a highly cautious rehabilitation process his comeback was in the match against Zadar on 20 October 2007.

This was his first official match in over 16 months.

However, he was unable to reach his previous form and his ankle injury problems continued.

Tudor announced his retirement on 22 July 2008 at age 30 after problems with his right ankle reappeared.

He spent his final season playing for his youth club, Hajduk Split.

On 22 July 2008, at the age of 30, he announced his early retirement due to his recurring ankle injury problems.

As manager, he took charge of Hajduk from 2013 to 2015, and spent eight months with PAOK in the 2015–16 season.

In Turkey, he managed Karabükspor from 2016 to 2017, and Galatasaray in 2017.

From April to June 2018, Tudor managed Serie A side Udinese and in that time, saved the club from relegation to Serie B.

In March 2019, he came back to Udinese.

After he returned to Hajduk in January 2020, Andrea Pirlo invited Tudor to join his coaching staff at Juventus in August 2020, which offer Tudor accepted.

He became manager of Marseille in 2022 before leaving the club after one season in 2023.