Sanel Kuljić


Sanel Kuljić is an Austrian former professional footballer of Bosnian descent, who played as a striker.
His father emigrated to Austria from SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1970s.

Club career

Born in Salzburg, Kuljić started his professional career in Salzburg but made his name at Austrian Football First League side SV Pasching with whom he won promotion to the Austrian Football Bundesliga in 2002. He repeated that feat with SV Ried in 2005, when he also became 2nd division top goalscorer. In 2006, he became league top goalscorer and subsequently moved abroad to join Swiss side FC Sion but controversially returned to Austria after one year when he signed for Vienna club Austria Wien.
Kuljić left FK Austria Wien for newly formed Austrian second-division side FC Magna Wiener Neustadt – who acquired the playing licence of SC Schwanenstadt for the 2008–09 campaign – and was joined by Austria Wien team-mates Yüksel Sariyar and Sašo Fornezzi.
On 25 November, Kuljić scored four goals and his team Wiener Neustadt beat LASK Linz 4–1.

International career

Kuljić made his debut for Austria in an August 2005 friendly match against Scotland and has earned 20 caps, scoring 3 goals. He became a regular in the national team squad but was surprisingly overlooked for EURO 2008.

Extortion

In November 2013, Kuljić was taken in custody after former Kapfenberger teammate Dominique Taboga claimed he was blackmailed by Kuljić to manipulate match results. After being accused of trying to manipulate 18 matches in the first two Austrian tiers, Kuljić was sentenced to five years in prison in autumn 2014. He was released early in March 2017 for good conduct.

Drug dealing

In September 2019 Kuljić was arrested for drug dealing. In December he was handed a one-year prison sentence with Kuljić stating that he had only been involved with drug dealing because of a cocaine addiction he was suffering from.

Honours