Slaven started playing in 1988 for his hometown club and caped 118 games with 14 scores. Afterwards he was transfered to Karlsruher FC (Bundesliga), where he played 2 seasons. Laters he moved on to the Premier League and played there for West Ham and Everton.

He won 3 cups and 2 championships. He was one of the croatian surprise package of the FIFA world tournament 1998 in France (winning the third place).

After his active carrer he became a team manager. Well he was for some seasons the team manager of Croatia. Afterwards he managed Lok Moskva and Basiktas Istanbul. Today he is the coach of West Ham Utd..