Born in Osijek, Bjelica started playing for a small club, Metalac Olt in the 1989–90 season. He quickly moved to NK Osijek and spent almost four seasons there, before moving abroad to Spain. Bjelica played for Albacete Balompié for four years, during which the team reached the Copa del Rey semi-final in the 1994–95 season. In 1996, he moved to Real Betis and was in the team that was the runner-up in the 1996–97 campaign. The next season, Bjelica spent at UD Las Palmas, but returned to Real Betis a year later. Due to injuries, he played very few games in this period, and would again spend a season at Las Palmas until the end of 1999. Bjelica then returned home to Osijek for two seasons and recovered his form, playing with the team in three stages of the UEFA Cup. He then moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 2000, where he spent four seasons until semi-retiring top-tier football in 2004. During the 2004–05 season, Bjelica played for VfB Admira Wacker Mödling. After that, he played for the Austrian club FC Kärnten in the Austrian Football First League before retiring on 31 June 2008.
International career
Bjelica represented Croatia nine times from 2001 until 2004. He was part of the UEFA Euro 2004 squad, but retired from the team in that year, at the same time the manager Otto Barić was replaced.
Managerial career
Bjelica began his coaching career on 15 September 2007 at FC Kärnten, as player-caretaker manager. On 1 July 2008, he signed a full managing contract, just a day after ending his playing career. Bjelica was the head coach of Lustenau 07 from March to December 2009, as well as WAC St. Andrä from May 2010 to June 2013. Bjelica moved to Austria Wien on 17 June 2013 as their new head coach., and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage, defeating the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb in the last round of qualification, with the club. Bjelica was sacked on 16 February 2014. As Austria Wien failed to qualify for the UEFA Europa League nonetheless at the end of the season, his contract expired. In June 2014, he was hired by Serie B side Spezia. On 30 August 2016, he was appointed the new head coach of Polish side Lech Poznań. On 10 May 2018, he was released from his contract at Lech. On 15 May 2018, Bjelica signed a two-year-deal with the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb. Four days later, he celebrated winning the Croatian First League, while on 23 May 2018, he won the Croatian Cup. On 8 November 2018, beating Spartak Trnava, Dinamo was qualified to the Europa League knockout phase. On 18 September 2019, Bjelica led Dinamo in its first match in the UEFA Champions League after four years, and won 4–0 against Atalanta. On 16 April 2020, following the dismissal of the entire coaching staff, the club announced the termination of the contract with Bjelica.
