Dario Melnjak (born 31 October 1992) is a Croatian 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

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva H ...

club

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, t ...

Club career

Melnjak started his career in the lower tier , spending most of his youth career there, apart from two seasons at Varteks at under-15 level. After debuting for his club in the 2010–11 season, he moved on to the Treća HNL West team Zelina, where he achieved promotion to

Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga ( en, First football league), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Yugoslav Second ...

in the 2011–12 season. He remained a first team player in the following season, and moved on to the

team

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 ...

at the beginning of the 2013–14 season. On 2 February 2015, Melnjak signed a contract with Belgian side

Sporting Lokeren Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (; often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren) was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ce ...

for three-and-a-half seasons. On 20 June 2016, Melnjak signed for

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

side Neftçi on loan. On 10 November 2016, Neftçi and Lokeren mutually agreed to the early termination of Melnjak's loan. On 23 September 2021, Melnjak signed a one-year contract with Croatian club

HNK Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, t ...

, with an option for a further two years. On 19 January 2022, Melnjak extended his contract for two years, with the new deal ending in mid-2024. On 2 March 2022, Melnjak scored two goals against HNK Gorica in the

2021–22 Croatian Football Cup The 2021–22 Croatian Football Cup is the 31st season of Croatia's football knockout competition. It is sponsored by the betting company ''SuperSport'' and known as the SuperSport Hrvatski nogometni kup for sponsorship purposes. The defending ch ...

semi-final, taking Hajduk to the final in a 2–1 win. On 26 May 2022, in the 2022 Croatian Football Cup Final, Melnjak again scored twice, this time in a 3–1 win against

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football, football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top ...

, to give Hajduk its seventh cup win and first since 2012–13.

International career

He made his Croatia national team debut on 11 June 2019 in a friendly against Tunisia, as a starter.

Honours

Hajduk Split *

Croatian Cup Croatian Cup may refer to: *Croatian Football Cup *Croatian Football Super Cup * Croatian Women's Football Cup *Croatian Basketball Cup, also known as Krešimir Ćosić Cup *Croatian Handball Cup *Croatian Water Polo Cup *Croatian Minute Movie Cup ...

: 2021–22,

2022–23 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 ...

References

External links

* 1992 births Living people Footballers from Varaždin Men's association football fullbacks Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Zelina players NK Slaven Belupo players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Neftçi PFK players NK Domžale players Çaykur Rizespor footballers HNK Hajduk Split players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Belgian Pro League players Azerbaijan Premier League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Süper Lig players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey {{Croatia-footy-defender-stub