Our striker has been married to his wife Monika since 2019, she is his biggest supporter and they are the proud parents of three sons and one daughter.
Footballer Ante Budimir he is the hero of the match between the Croatian national football team and the one from Panama, in which he was the only scorer of the goal that leads us to further competition of the World Cup in the USA and with which he made history. Namely, at the age of 34 years and 336 days, our striker became the oldest Croatian scorer in the history of world championships, breaking the record of his retired colleague Ivica Olić, who scored a goal against Cameroon in 2014 at the age of 34 years and 277 days. Ante is famous as one of the most important national team players, and he is also the best scorer in the history of his Spanish club CA Osasuna in La Liga, but his path to success was not marked by glamour, flaunting wealth and fame, but by persistence, talent, work, and the many challenges that life put in front of him.
He was born on July 22, 1991 in Zenica, and his family comes from Ozimica near Žepč in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When he was only a few months old, the war forced his family to flee to Croatia, where he grew up in Velika Gorica. His childhood was not easy, he lost his father who tragically died in a traffic accident, so he and his two twin sisters were raised by their mother alone. In Velika Gorica, he also met the love of his life – his wife Monika, with whom he has four children – three sons, the eldest of whom he named Toma, and a daughter, Marija. She also grew up there after being a refugee from Vukovar, and Ante once revealed that they met as young people and that he drove her home on a bicycle after hanging out. They were together for many years before getting married in 2019.
Monika, just like her husband, is very self-effacing and rarely appears in the media. It is known that she was born in Vukovar and that during the Homeland War, like Ante, she was forced to leave her home. She is his biggest supporter and we can actually see her most often in the stands during major competitions, where she and her children cheer on the Croatian national team and her husband. However, before the championship, Ante was not sure if Monika and the children would make it to America, given the great distance from home. “My mother and sisters will come, while I’m not sure about my wife and children, they’re still small, and then it’s too big a bite, such a long way,” he said in a recent interview with Silvi Škrlec for Tportal.
Although he keeps the details of his private life to himself, from time to time Ante publishes a family photo and pampers his followers, such as those from his youngest daughter’s baptism or birthday celebrations.
Ante started playing football in Veliko Gorica club Radnik, and he built his professional career step by step. After playing for Gorica, Inter Zaprešić and Lokomotiva, he tried out in Germany, but in the St. Paulija failed to stand out. He then decided to try his luck in Italy and he did not make a mistake because he excelled in the Crotone jersey, and then reached Osasuna via Mallorca. It was in Pamplona that he became a club legend, breaking the record for the number of goals in the Spanish championship and turning into one of the best strikers in La Liga, who is also a student of economics, and a dedicated one, because he only has one exam left, which he talked about before the championship in an interview with Marko Bilić for Free Dalmatia. “The English? We’re ready for anything! And then I’m going to pass that exam and get my diploma,” he declared at the time.
He made his debut for the Croatian national team in 2020, he was part of the generation that won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and many remember his goal against Armenia that secured Croatia’s place at the 2024 European Championship. His friends and teammates describe him as a modest, self-effacing and calm family man, and among the fans he is one of the most loved members of the Croatian national team, and the last match only further strengthened his status.
