Filip Valenčič (born 7 January 1992) is a Slovenian footballer who plays as a

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 ...

for ÍBV.

Club career

Valenčič started his senior career with local side Interblock, before moving to

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 Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten club ...

side Olimpija Ljubljana in 2011. In July 2015, he signed with English side

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

. He scored his first goal for the club against

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

in a 1–0 win in January 2016. Following his short spell in England, he signed with Palloseura Kemi Kings ahead of their first season in the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

, the top flight of Finnish football. In 2017, he moved to HJK. In his first campaign with HJK, he finished as the league's joint second top-scorer with 15 goals (7 after his move from PS Kemi), and helped his team winning their record 28th league title. He also went on to win the league's player of the season award at the league's end of year gala on 3 November 2017. After two successful seasons with HJK, Valenčič signed a deal with Stabæk in 2018 on a three-year contract. He would go on to only play 124 minutes during the

2018 Eliteserien The 2018 Eliteserien was the 74th completed season of top-tier football in Norway. This was second season of Eliteserien as rebranding from Tippeligaen. The season began on 11 March and ended 24 November 2018, not including play-off matches. Fixt ...

campaign, scoring no goals. On 12 February 2019, he joined

Inter Turku Football Club International Turku, commonly referred to as Inter Turku and colloquially known as Inter, is a professional football club based in Turku, Finland, that competes in the Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish Football. Founded in 1 ...

on loan for the 2019 Veikkausliiga season. He finished the campaign as the league's top scorer with 16 goals as the club finished in second place, securing a spot in the first qualifying round of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. In June 2022, Valenčič signed for

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 time ...

International career

Valenčič has represented Slovenia at various youth levels. In 2019, it was reported that he has considering switching allegiances and taking Finnish citizenship so that he could represent

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on the international stage.

Honours

HJK *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

: 2016–17 Individual * Veikkausliiga Player of the Season: 2017,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

* Veikkausliiga Team of the Year: 2017, 2019 * Veikkausliiga Best Forward: 2019 * Veikkausliiga Top Goalscorer: 2019 * Finnish Cup Top Goalscorer: 2017–18

References

External links

Player profile
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valencic, Filip 1992 births Living people Footballers from Ljubljana Slovenian footballers Slovenia youth international footballers Slovenia under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders NK IB 1975 Ljubljana players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players A.C. Monza players Notts County F.C. players Kemi City F.C. players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Stabæk Fotball players FC Inter Turku players FC Dinamo Minsk players Kuopion Palloseura players Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Slovenian Second League players Serie C players English Football League players Veikkausliiga players Eliteserien players Belarusian Premier League players Kakkonen players Slovenian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Finland Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate footballers in Norway Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in Belarus Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Expatriate footballers in Iceland Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Iceland