Leonard Zuta ( mk, Леонард Жута; born 9 August 1992) is a Macedonian 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 Norwegian Eliteserien club

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

Club career

Zuta spent the first four seasons of his professional career with BK Häcken in

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

. He made his official début on 13 April 2012, when he came in as a substitute in a home win against Mjällby AIF. Until late August 2015, Zuta made 57 appearances with Häcken, often featuring in the starting line-up. On 31 August 2015, Zuta signed a three-year contract with

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

in Croatia's

1. 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 ...

. He made his official début for the club on 19 September 2015, in a goalless home draw against

Inter Zaprešić Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

, when he entered as a substitute in the 87th minute. Zuta soon became a first team player during his stint at the club and won Croatian

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

and

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

in 2016–17 season. Zuta also became popular figure to the supporters of

and was praised on various

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

s on social media. On 8 January 2019 Zuta signed for Turkish Süper Lig club Konyaspor. In September 2020, Zuta signed a two-year contract with Italian Serie B club

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

, with an option for another year. On 30 July 2021, Zuta signed a three-year contract with Norwegian Eliteserien club

. He was brought in to replace

Sam Adekugbe Samuel Ayomide Adekugbe (born January 16, 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Süper Lig club Galatasaray and the Canada national team. Born in England, he obtained Canadian citizenship in 2016. Club career Vancouver ...

, who had left for Hatayspor.

International career

On 15 June 2015. Zhuta made his début with the Macedonian national team in an away loss to Slovakia. He has earned a total of 15 caps, scoring no goals and his final international was a November 2016

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match against Spain.

Club statistics

International statistics

Honours

HNK Rijeka *

Croatian First Football League 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 (soccer), football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, i ...

: 2016–17 *

Croatian Football Cup The Hrvatski nogometni kup ( eng, Croatian football cup), also colloquially known as Rabuzinovo sunce (), is an annually held football tournament for Croatian football clubs and is the second most important competition in Croatian football after th ...

: 2016–17

References

External links

Profile at Macedonian Football
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuta, Leonard 1992 births Living people Footballers from Gothenburg Swedish people of Macedonian descent Association football defenders Swedish footballers Macedonian footballers North Macedonia under-21 international footballers North Macedonia international footballers BK Häcken players HNK Rijeka players Konyaspor footballers U.S. Lecce players Vålerenga Fotball players Allsvenskan players Croatian Football League players Süper Lig players Serie B players Eliteserien players Macedonian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Croatia Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Expatriate footballers in Turkey Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Sweden Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Italy Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Norway Macedonian expatriate sportspeople in Norway