Rade Prica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Rade Prica
Full name	Rade Prica
Date of birth	30 June 1980 (1980-06-30) (age 27)
Place of birth	Ljungby, Sweden
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Sunderland
Number	45
Youth clubs
1995–1997	Ljungby
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1997 1998–2002 2003–2006 2007–2008 2008–	Ljungby IF Helsingborgs IF Hansa Rostock Aalborg BK Sunderland	037 0(14) 073 0(27) 113 0(20) 048 0(28) 002 00(1)
National team²
1999–2001 2001–	Sweden U21 Sweden	013 00(5) 014 00(2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 20:24, 23 January 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Rade Prica (pronounced: Preetza), (born June 30, 1980 in Ljungby) is a Swedish professional footballer, who plays as a striker for Sunderland.

[edit] Club career

Of Serbian heritage, Prica started his footballing career as a youth player for Ljungby, he then made his way into the first team, making 37 appearances and scoring 14 goals, over a period of 3 seasons.^[1]

After leaving Ljungby, Prica signed for renowned Swedish club Helsingborg in 1998, he then went on to play for them for 5 seasons playing 73 times scoring 27 goals, Prica then moved to German team Hansa Rostock.^[2] He made his debut for the Sweden national football team in February 2001 against Thailand coming on as a substitute in the 66th minute replacing Martin Åslund.

Prica signed for Aalborg BK in 2006 after being released by Hansa Rostock,^[3] During the season 2006–07 he was topscorer in the Danish Superliga scoring 19 goals.^[4]

During AaB's UEFA Cup Campaign in 2007, wellknown scout Simon Prince was doing some scouting. It was at White Hart Lane that Prince noticed the hard man's goalscoring abilities and great movement. "Aalborg put on a strong performance that night, but there was one lad who stood out", said Prince. "He was outstanding". The next day Prince told two other scouts of Prica's abilities. When news of Prica's arrival at the Stadium of Light came in, Prince was not surprised at all.

Sunderland completed the signing of Prica on 23 January 2008 for a fee of more than £2 million on a three-and-a-half year contract.^[5]

He scored on his debut for Sunderland against Birmingham City on 29 January 2008, and missed out in scoring a second with referee Mark Halsey ruling it out for handball.^[6]