Ex-Premier League striker jailed for failing to pay £70k alimony to Miss Croatia ex-wife

Posted Thursday, November 16, 2023 by Dailystar.co.uk

A former international and Premier League striker, who played for Aston Villa, has been jailed after he failed to pay £70,000 in financial support to his Miss Croatia ex-wife

Former Premier League striker Bosko Balaban jailed after failing to pay Miss Croatia ex-wife £70,000 (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

A former Premier League striker has been jailed after he failed to pay his Miss Croatia ex-wife £70,000 in financial support after they got divorced.

Ex-Croatia international and former Aston Villa forward Bosko Balaban was given a conditional sentence of one year and four years of probation in 2021 due to overdue maintenance money owed to model ex-wife and Miss Croatia 1995 Iva Radic.

Balaban, 45, played for Aston Villa between 2001 and 2003 but featured just 11 times for Villa, failing to score for the club despite scoring ten international goals in 35 caps. Balaban left Villa to join Club Brugge in 2003 after being released from his contract.

The former footballer was married to Radic for more than a decade before they got divorced in 2017 with the couple having three children together. But Balaban failed to pay the total amount of alimony debts in the two year time frame he was given, meaning he will now be jailed for a year with four years suspended, reports Belgian outlet HLN.

According to the report, the court in Zagreb handed the sentence and told Balaban there is ‘no escape’ from prison time, saying that even if he paid the overdue money he would still be jailed.

Radic was Miss Croatia 1995

Radic, 46, has worked alongside brands such as Paco Rabanne, H&M Damiani, Chanel and Journal during her modelling career which kickstarted when she was crowned Miss Croatia at the age of 18.

While Balaban was beginning his senior career at Rijeka in his homeland at the same time. He later played for Dinamo Zagreb before joining Villa, also turning out for Club Brugge, Zagreb again, Panionios in Greece and Selangor in Malaysia after his Premier League nightmare.

He retired in 2015 and became a transfer agent – most notably helping Andrej Kramaic seal a then-club record £9million move to Leicester City from Rijeka in 2015.