Andraž Šporar (born 27 February 1994) is a Slovenian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

and the Slovenia national team.

Club career

Olimpija Ljubljana

In June 2012, Šporar transferred from Interblock to Olimpija Ljubljana. In the 2015–16 Slovenian PrvaLiga season, Šporar was named a team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. During the first half of the club's season, he played 18 PrvaLiga games and scored 17 goals.

Basel

On 8 December 2015,

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

announced that Šporar had signed a four-and-a-half-year contract up until the end of June 2020. He joined Basel's first team for their 2015–16 season under head coach

Urs Fischer Urs Fischer (born 2 May 1973) is a Swiss-born contemporary visual artist living in New York City. Fischer’s practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. Education and early career Born to two doctors as the second of two children ...

. After playing in four friendly games, he made his

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

debut on 14 February 2016 in a 4–0 away win against Grasshopper Club. Just a few days later, on 18 February, Šporar got injured during

warm-up 'Warming up' is a part of stretching and preparation for physical exertion or a performance by exercising or practicing gently beforehand, usually undertaken before a performance or practice. Athletes, singers, actors and others warm up before s ...

before the away match against

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

. The torn tendon required surgery and this kept Šporar out for the rest of the season. At the end of the season his team won the

2015–16 Swiss Super League The 2015–16 Swiss Super League, also known as Raiffeisen Super League for sponsoring purposes, was the 119th season of top-tier football in Switzerland. Basel were the defending champions. A total of 10 teams competed in the league, the 9 bes ...

championship. Šporar scored his first goal for Basel on 15 April 2017 in a 4–0 away victory over Lausanne-Sport. At the end of the 2016–17 Super League season, Šporar won the championship for the second time. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the 2016–17 Swiss Cup, defeating

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

3–0 in the final. Despite this success, Šporar decided to leave the club. He played a total of 26 competitive games for Basel, and scored one goal.

Arminia Bielefeld (loan)

On 25 June 2017, Šporar joined 2. Bundesliga side

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

on loan for the 2017–18 season.

Slovan Bratislava

Šporar joined the

Slovak Super Liga The Slovak Super Liga is the top level football league in Slovakia, currently known as the Fortuna Liga due to a sponsorship arrangement. It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is eleven, he ...

side Slovan Bratislava in January 2018 for a reported fee of €600,000. He helped the team win the 2017–18 Slovak Cup. In the 2018–19 season, he won the Slovak title and became the Slovak league's best goalscorer, scoring 29 goals and tying the record for most goals scored in a season.

Sporting

On 23 January 2020, Šporar transferred to

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

on a five-year contract for a transfer fee of €6 million, making him the most expensive player in the history of the Slovak Super Liga. With bonuses, the total transfer fee may eventually rise above €7 million.

Braga (loan)

On 1 February 2021, Šporar joined

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season.

Middlesbrough (loan)

In August 2021 he joined English side

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on loan. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 15 September 2021.

Panathinaikos

On 27 July 2022, Šporar signed a four-year contract with

side

for a reported transfer fee of over €3 million.

International career

In November 2016, Šporar received his first call-up to the senior Slovenia squad for matches against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He debuted against Malta, replacing

Milivoje Novaković Milivoje Novaković (; sr-Cyrl, Миливоје Новаковић, ; born 18 May 1979) is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career Novaković spent his youth career at Olimpija where he remained unti ...

late in the second half.

Personal life

Andraž Šporar is the son of Olimpija's former captain Miha Šporar. In the past, Šporar has revealed that it is his ambition to earn a move to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, which is his favourite club, at some stage in his career. Liverpool followed the player in 2015, but in the end there was no transfer.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Šporar goal''.

Honours

Basel *

: 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

: 2016–17 Slovan Bratislava *

: 2018–19 *

Slovak Cup The Slovak Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Slovak football. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa Conference League. History The competition was first contested in 1969. Until 1993, the winner of the Slovak Cup would face the w ...

: 2017–18 Sporting CP *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

Braga *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

Individual *

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga ( sl, Prva slovenska nogometna liga, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Football in Slovenia, Slovenian football league system. ...

Top Scorer: 2015–16 * Slovak Super Liga Top Scorer: 2018–19, 2019–20 * Slovak Super Liga Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Slovak Super Liga Player of the Month: November/December 2018, May 2019, November/December 2019 *Slovak Super Liga Goal of the Month: October 2019 *Slovak Super Liga Team of the Season: 2018–19, 2019–20 *

Player of the Month: August 2022

References

External links

Andraž Šporar
at Swiss Football League *
Andraž Šporar
at NZS {{DEFAULTSORT:Sporar, Andraz 1994 births Living people Footballers from Ljubljana Slovenian footballers Slovenia youth international footballers Slovenia under-21 international footballers Slovenia international footballers Association football forwards Slovenian Second League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Swiss Super League players Swiss Promotion League players 2. Bundesliga players Slovak Super Liga players Primeira Liga players English Football League players Super League Greece players NK IB 1975 Ljubljana players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players FC Basel players Arminia Bielefeld players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Sporting CP footballers S.C. Braga players Middlesbrough F.C. players Panathinaikos F.C. players Slovenian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Slovakia Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Greece Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Greece