Melbourne Heart have signed former Dinamo Zagreb striker Josip Tadic ahead of the 2012/13 A-League season.
Centre-forward Tadic is likely to be seen as direct replacement for Eli Babalj, who was lured to Red Star Belgrade last month.
The 24-year-old Tadic follows Patrick Gerhardt, Steven Gray, Golgol Mebrahtu and Andrew Redmayne in joining Heart during the close season.
Josip s a number nine, holds up the ball well, finds good positions in the box and is a goal scorer. He s a very important signing, Heart head coach John Aloisi said.
Having won three titles on the bounce during his time at Dinamo Zagreb alongside Luka Modric, Josip will bring a winning mentality and is the perfect type of player for our system.
He will be the player we look for to score goals and we re sure he will. Josip is a player with a lot to prove.
Tadic began his career with NK Osijek in the Croatian top flight, joining Bayer Leverkusen in 2005.
He failed to make an impression at Leverkusen, moving back to Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb in 2006.
Tadic enjoyed the most productive spell of his career to date in the Croatian capital, netting 20 goals in 62 league appearances for Dinamo before moving to French side Grenoble in 2009.
Unable to hit the back of the net in France, he moved to second-tier German club Arminia Bielefeld in December 2010, where Tadic struck six goals in 14 games during the second half of the 2010/11 campaign.
He signed for AC Omonia in July 2011, but was released by the Cypriot club before the beginning of the new season.
Tadic s last club was Polish outfit Lechia Gdansk, where he made 11 league appearances without a goal last term.
