Croatian’s 16-Year-Old English Premier League Record Broken
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
(Photo: English Premier League/Twitter)
There is nothing the English Premier League loves more than a record.
The English Premier League statisticians are kept busy, informing fans on a regular basis of new and obscure records being set or broken.
This season so far has been a good one for them with Manchester City going on a record-breaking streak of wins, breaking loads of records in the process.
Another record fell last night as a Croatian had to wave goodbye to one he had held for the past 16 years.
Former Derby County and Dinamo Zagreb striker Branko Strupar scored 15 times in the early 2000s without providing a single assist to set a new record which remained his until New Year’s Day.
His record was broken by Callum Wilson, who after scoring for Bournemouth against Brighton on New Year’s Day means he has now scored 16 Premier League goals without providing an assist.
Callum Wilson has now scored 16 Premier League goals for Bournemouth without providing an assist, breaking Branko Strupar’s #PL record of 15 pic.twitter.com/oA3teRol6A
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 1, 2018
16 – Callum Wilson now holds the @PremierLeague record as the highest scoring player (16 goals) without assisting a single goal, overtaking Branko Strupar (15 goals, 0 assists). Selfish. #BHABOU #NewYearsDay pic.twitter.com/6fzOlF6q8X
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 1, 2018
Born in Zagreb, Strupar started his career at NK Špansko before he was signed by Belgian club Genk.
He won the Belgian Golden Shoe as Player of the Year for 1998 after finishing as top scorer with 22 goals.
He was naturalised in 1999 and consequently played for the Belgium national football team, scoring 5 times in 17 games.
Branko Strupar
He moved to Derby County in December 1999, where he most notably scored the first British league goal of the year 2000 after two minutes against Watford.
He returned to Croatia for a brief spell at Dinamo Zagreb to end his career and now resides in Zagreb and commentates on Croatian television.
