Ivan Ergić (, ; born 21 January 1981) is a retired Serbian footballer who played as a midfielder.
Born in modern-day Croatia and raised in Australia, he began his career at Perth Glory and was briefly with Juventus before moving to Switzerland's FC Basel in 2001, where he played 202 league matches. He left in 2009 for Bursaspor, where he spent two seasons, winning the Turkish Süper Lig in the first.
Ergić was a member of the Serbia and Montenegro squad at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and earned 11 international caps between 2006 and 2008.
Club career
Perth Glory
Ergić was born in the coastal town of Šibenik in SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia but was raised in the near-by village of Gaćelezi.
Following the Breakup of Yugoslavia family Ergić fled from the Yugoslav wars to Australia and settled in Carnarvon, Western Australia in 1997. The young Ergić later and trained at the Australian Institute of Sport on a government-funded football scholarship.
Ergić signed his first professional football contract with Perth Glory in 1999 and helped the club finish the regular 1999–2000 NSL season as division winners. In the final-series he scored a 'golden goal' in the semi-final to send the club into their first ever final. The 2000 NSL Grand Final was held on 11 June and Glory took a three-goal lead by half time, but their opponents Wollongong Wolves pulled the game back and it ended in a 3–3 draw. The score remained level, even after extra time. The Wolves won the penalty shoot-out and Scott Chipperfield won the Joe Marston Medal as man of the match.
Basel
2000–01
In July 2000, Ergić signed for Italian Serie A team Juventus. However, he was immediately loaned out to Swiss side FC Basel, so that he could gain playing experience. He joined Basel's first team for their 2000–01 season under head coach Christian Gross, who started his second season with the club in that position. After playing in one test game, Ergić played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game on 5 August as Basel were defeated 1–0 by Yverdon-Sports. Basel started somewhat irregularly into the season, a number of high scoring games, three victories, three defeats. They then gathered themselves and climbed to the top of the table. However, four defeats in the last five games, through them back to fifth position, at the end of the qualifying stage. Ergić scored his first goal with his new team in the home game in the Stadion Schützenmatte on 10 December. But his goal could not help the team as Basel were defeated 3–2 by Lausanne-Sport. Basel were able to play their home games of the championship group in their new stadium, the St. Jakob-Park which opened on 15 March 2001 and it was sold out with 33,433 spectators on three occasions. However, in the second half of the season, the team played eight draws in their 14 matches and so ended the season in fourth position.
2001–02
Basel played in the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup. Basel advanced to the final but were defeated by Aston Villa. Ergić played in six of these UIC matches, but missed the return leg of the final due to injury. The 2001–02 league season started in the worst possible way. In their first game away against FC Sion, Basel suffered a humiliating 8–1 defeat. They also lost two of the next four games. The team then started an eleven-match unbeaten run, winning nine of these games. Basel ended the qualification as league leaders, five points ahead of Lugano. Ergić advanced to become regular starter, in his first season he had been used mainly as substitute. Basel started well into the second part of the season and during this period FCB played their best football, pulling away at the top of the table and subsequently achieved the championship title prematurely. Basel won the last game of the season, on 8 May 2002, and became champions ten points clear at the top of the table. Just four days later they played in the cup final against Grasshopper Club, winning 2–1 after extra time, thus they won the domestic double.