Besiktas defender Vida eclipse century mark in Super Lig appearances

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish football club Besiktas' Croatian defender Domagoj Vida played his 100th Super Lig match this week to reach a milestone.

Vida, 31, was in the starting 11 in a league match on Wednesday as his team claimed a comfortable 3-0 win against Aytemiz Alanyaspor at Vodafone Park in Istanbul.

He joined Besiktas from the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv in 2018 and has a contract with the Turkish team until 2022.

In the 2017-18 season -- his first season at Besiktas -- Vida scored one goal in 13 Super Lig appearances.

Now he is spending one of his fruitful seasons at Besiktas, scoring four goals in 25 league matches for the Black Eagles.

Last season, the Croatian central defender did his best for the Istanbul club as he scored five goals in 31 Super Lig appearances.

In his three-year spell in Turkey, Vida has racked up 13 goals in 100 league games for Besiktas.

But in total, Vida has piled up 123 appearances for Besiktas, including the Super Lig and European Cup games.

In this term, he scored most of his goals against city rivals Fenerbahce.

Vida netted three goals against the Yellow Canaries in the derbies, two headers and a close-range left-footed shot.

- 8th Besiktas foreigner to eclipse 100 league matches

Vida has become the eighth Besiktas foreigner to play in at least 100 league games.

The Istanbul team's Canadian midfielder Atiba Hutchinson -- an active Besiktas player since 2013 -- has played 233 Super Lig matches to have an all-time league appearance record among the Besiktas foreigners.

Vida needs to play in six more Super Lig games to pass the club's German former midfielder Fabian Ernst, who bagged 105 league appearances for Besiktas.

Ernst played for Besiktas from 2009-2012. He retired in 2015.

In the list topped by Hutchinson, there are many Besiktas veterans who have played in at least 100 league matches for the club, such as Tomas Sivok (156), Ricardo Quaresma (154), Filip Holosko (145), Bobo (144), Ronaldo (109) and Ernst (105).

- Title drought at Besiktas

Vida is playing his fourth season at Besiktas, but he was unable to win any domestic titles.

Before his three-year span at Besiktas, Vida played for Croatian clubs Osijek and Dinamo Zagreb, Germany's Bayer Leverkusen and Dynamo Kyiv.

From 2013-2018, Vida was a Dynamo Kyiv defender to win two Ukrainian league titles, two Ukrainian Cups and one Ukrainian Super Cup.
He was the Croatian champion twice with Dinamo Zagreb in 2012 and 2013.

Vida helped Dinamo Zagreb claim the 2012 Croatian Cup.

- Vida has World Cup silver medal on his résumée

The Besiktas regular has been a decent member of the Croatian national team as well.

Vida has earned 86 international caps for Croatia since his debut in 2010.

He scored four goals for his nation.

Vida bagged a silver medal in the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia as he was part of the Croatia squad.

France halted Croatia's heroic run in Russia in the final.

France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow to be the world champions for the second time.

Vida played in 2018 final to return home as World Cup runner-up.