Former Premier League striker jailed for a year for failing to pay Miss Croatia ex-wife divorce money
A former Premier League striker has been jailed for failing to provide financial support for his ex wife.
Bosko Balaban played 35 times for Croatia between 2000 and 2007 and went to two World Cups tournaments.
He also had a very brief spell in English football back in 2001, signing for Aston Villa in a £5.8 million move from Dinamo Zagreb.
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On wages of £20,000-a-week, Balaban played just nine times for Villa and seven came from the bench.
After a loan move back to Dinamo, he was released in 2003 and joined Club Brugge on a free.
But 20 years on and reports claim Balaban will serve time in prison because of overdue maintenance money to his former half.
Balaban married Iva Radic, a model who was named 'Miss Croatia' in 1995, and the two had three children together in more than a decade of marriage.
The couple divorced in 2017 and Balaban was given a two-year window to pay off alimony debts totalling £70,000.
He refused and according to HLN, the 45-year-old will now be sent to jail for one year in January.
A court in Zagreb gave him a one-year prison sentence and an additional four years of probation.
Even if he is was to pay the money now, Balaban's punishment will still be final and there is no way back.
Balaban has been working as a football agent following his return and represented compatriot and current Hoffenheim striker Andrej Kramaric, helping engineer a £9 million transfer to Leicester City back in January 2015.
He also invested in real estate in three different locations: Zagreb, his birthplace Rijeka and on the Croatian peninsula of Istria.
Radic, meanwhile, continues to work with fashion brands and has 113,000 followers on her Instagram page.
Topics: Premier League, Aston Villa
Josh Lawless