Danijel Štefulj (born 2 June 1973) is a retired Croatian

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 played as a defender or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. During his 16-year-long professional career, Štefulj played for several clubs in Croatia and Germany, most notably Croatia Zagreb (now Dinamo Zagreb) and

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

Club career

Born in Čakovec, Štefulj started his professional career with NK Varteks in 1992, before transferring to Croatia Zagreb in the winter break of the 1995–96 season. During the 1997–98 season, he also spent a few months on loan to

NK Slaven Belupo Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo ( en, Slaven Belupo Football Club), often referred to as NK Slaven Belupo, Slaven Belupo or simply Slaven, and known internationally as NK Slaven Koprivnica, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city ...

. In 1999, he moved to German side

, who played in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

at the time. He established himself as a regular at the club, appearing in a total of 95 league matches over the following three seasons and helping the club gain promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

in 2002. He scored a total of 14 league goals during the three seasons. During the 2002–03 season, he appeared in a total of 22 Bundesliga matches for Hannover, scoring his only goal of the season in a 4–2 win against

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

in February 2003. The following season, he made 9 more Bundesliga appearances for Hannover before being loaned to Nuremberg in February 2004, making 16 appearances for the club in the 2nd Bundesliga until the end of the season and scoring two goals for the club in a 4–3 win at

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

in May 2004. He also helped Nuremberg return to the top flight for the 2004–05 season. He then returned to Hannover following the end of the 2003–04 season, but only made 4 Bundesliga appearances for the club throughout the entire 2004–05 Bundesliga season. In the summer of 2005, he moved to SC Paderborn 07, where he only made one appearance in the 2nd Bundesliga before moving to Rot-Weiss Essen in the winter break of the 2005–06 season and making 10 appearances for the club in the Regionalliga Nord. He also helped Essen gain promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2006–07 season, but made no appearances in the league before leaving for

NK Međimurje NK Međimurje is a Croatian football club based in Čakovec. The club is named after Međimurje, the region in northern Croatia where Čakovec is located. The club play their home games at the Stadion SRC Mladost, Čakovec, which has a tota ...

in January 2007. He finished his senior career with Međimurje during the 2007–08 season, but had a few years at Austrian fifth and sixth tier sides.

International career

Štefulj made four international appearances for the Croatian national under-21 football team between 1993 and 1996, all in international friendlies. He also won two full international caps for

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

in their friendly matches against

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 ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

in 1996.

Personal life

He has a son named

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

, which is pronounced the same, but with different spelling. Daniel is also a footballer and has played for

Varaždin ) , image_photo = , image_skyline = , image_flag = Flag of Varaždin.svg , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shield = Grb_Grad ...

, a club unassociated with the club Štefulj played for, NK Varteks, which had changed name to NK Varaždin in 2010, then folded in 2015.

References

External links

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Štefulj Danijel profile
at Nogometni Magazin {{DEFAULTSORT:Stefulj, Danijel 1973 births Living people Footballers from Čakovec Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Slaven Belupo players Hannover 96 players 1. FC Nürnberg players SC Paderborn 07 players Rot-Weiss Essen players NK Međimurje players Croatian Football League players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Austrian 2. Landesliga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria