Ivica Banović (born 2 August 1980) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

After making 11 domestic league appearances in his first season as a professional, he went on to find his place as a regular with NK Zagreb.

[2][3] Banović made his Bundesliga debut in Werder Bremen's 3–3 draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen on 14 October 2000, coming on as a substitute for Dieter Eilts in the 58th minute.

Eventually finding himself relegated to the club's reserve squad, Banović appeared in five Regionalliga Nord matches during the spring of 2004.

He scored five goals during his five appearances for the reserves, a hat-trick in a 3–3 draw against SC Paderborn 07 and a brace in a 4–2 win against SG Wattenscheid 09.

His first goal of the season came in a 3–2 defeat at home to Arminia Bielefeld in October 2005 and his second from a long-range free kick in a 3–1 win at Kaiserslautern the following month.

He also helped Nürnberg win the 2006–07 German Cup, making four appearances and scoring the only goal of their away match at BV Cloppenburg in the first round.

Bundesliga side SC Freiburg on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract with Nuremberg at the end of June 2007.

[4] Banović quickly established himself as a regular at Freiburg, making his competitive debut against FC Villingen in the first round of the German Cup.

By January 2011, Banović had lost his place in Freiburg's starting formation and was loaned to MSV Duisburg for the rest of the 2010–11 season.

His first appearance in the finals of an international youth tournament came at the 1998 European Under-18 Championship in Cyprus, where the team reached the third place after beating Portugal in penalty shootout.

In the spring of 1999, Banović was part of the Croatian squad at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria, where he appeared as a second-half substitute in all of the team's four matches before they were eliminated by Brazil in the round of 16, also scoring one goal in Croatia's 5–1 victory over Kazakhstan in their second group match.