Jan Novak (born 4 October 1997) 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 lea ...

who plays for NK Trebnje 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) ** Smal ...

. He is a product of the

NK Krka Nogometni klub Krka (), commonly referred to as NK Krka or Krka, is a Slovenian football club based in Novo Mesto, that competes in the Slovenian Second League, the second tier of Slovenian football. The team play its home games at Portoval. Th ...

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

and represented Slovenia at U18 level.

Club career

NK Krka

or winger, Novak began his career in his native

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

with

in 2004. He rose through the youth ranks to make his professional debut for the club at 16 years of age, with a late appearance as a substitute for Martin Kramarič in a 3–1 PrvaLiga defeat to

NK Rudar Velenje Nogometni klub Rudar Velenje (), commonly referred to as NK Rudar Velenje or simply Rudar Velenje, is a Slovenian football club from Velenje which competes in the Slovenian Second League, the second tier of the Slovenian football league system. ...

on 23 August 2014. Despite scoring prolifically for the youth teams, it wasn't until after relegation to the Second League that Novak made a breakthrough into the first team, making 18 appearances and two goals during the first half of the 2016–17 season before departing the

Portoval Portoval Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of NK Krka Nogometni klub Krka (), commonly referred to as NK Krka or Krka, is a Slovenian football ...

on 31 January 2017.

Brentford

During the 2016–17

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

, Novak travelled to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to join the B team at

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

on trial. He was successful, but paperwork problems meant that he was unable to join the club until 31 January 2017, when he signed an 18-month contract for an undisclosed fee. Novak made 32 appearances and scored six goals before his release at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Return to Slovenia

On 22 August 2018, Novak returned to Slovenia to rejoin Second League club NK Krka on a one-year contract and made 26 appearances and scored five goals during the 2018–19 season. Upon the expiration of his contract on 1 July 2019, Novak joined Second League club

NK Drava Ptuj Nogometni klub Drava Ptuj (), commonly referred to as NK Drava Ptuj or simply Drava, was a Slovenian football club, which played in the town of Ptuj. Named after the Drava river which flows through the town, Drava Ptuj has spent a total of seve ...

on a free transfer. He made 18 appearances and scored two goals during the truncated 2019–20 season and transferred back to NK Krka on 7 August 2020. Novak made just three appearances and transferred to Ljubljana Regional League club NK Trebnje during the 2021–22 off-season. He made 76 appearances and scored 29 goals over the course of the 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons.

International career

Novak won four U18 caps for

in 2014.

Career statistics

References

External links

Jan Novak
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Novak, Jan 1997 births Living people Men's association football forwards Men's association football wingers Slovenian men's footballers 21st-century Slovenian sportsmen Slovenia men's youth international footballers NK Krka players Brentford F.C. players NK Drava Ptuj (1933) players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England