Lovro Majer (; born 17 January 1998) 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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

and the Croatia national team.

Club career

Early career

Majer was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

in 1998. His father Egon hails from

Preko Preko ( lit. "Across") is a village and a municipality in Zadar County, Croatia. It is situated, as the name suggests, opposite of Zadar, on the island of Ugljan. Its old centre consists of typical Dalmatian architecture with numerous patrician ...

on the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Ugljan Ugljan () is a Croatian island and the first in the Zadar Archipelago. It is located northwest of the island of Pašman and southeast of the islands of Rivanj and Sestrunj. Separated from the mainland by the Zadar Channel, it is connected with t ...

. Majer started his football career with the local team

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb ( en, Dinamo Zagreb Citizens' Football Club, link=yes, italics=yes), commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo ...

. He left the team at the age of 12. In 2013, Majer joined Lokomotiva youth academy.

Lokomotiva

In 2016, Majer was called up to the Lokomotiva first team. On 30 June 2016, Majer made his senior team debut in the UEFA Europa League qualifying phase against Santa Coloma at Estadi Comunal, replacing

Eros Grezda Eros Genc Grezda (born 15 April 1995) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Turkish club Manisa and the Albania national team. Early life Grezda was born in Đakovica, FR Yugoslavia (modern day Gjakova, Kosovo) and g ...

in the 76th minute by coach

Mario Tokić Mario Tokić (born 23 July 1975) is a former Croatian footballer who is the current assistant coach of Oman. He retired following the end of the 2010–11 season. Playing career Club Mario Tokić started his professional career in NK Rijeka in ...

. On 17 July 2016, he made his

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 ...

debut in the matchday 1 against Dinamo Zagreb, replacing

Ivan Fiolić Ivan Fiolić (born 29 April 1996) is a Croatian footballer playing for Osijek as an attacking midfielder. Club career Fiolić is a youth exponent from Dinamo Zagreb. He made his Prva HNL debut on 10 May 2014 against NK Istra 1961 in a 2-1 awa ...

in the 55th minute of the 3–1 loss. On 25 October 2016, he scored in the

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 ...

in the 69th minute of the second round against Vinogradar. His goal led Lokomotiva to advance to the quarter-finals. On 10 March, Majer scored a brace in a 4–1 away win over Dinamo Zagreb, which was a historic first win for Lokomotiva over Dinamo, with the club winning after 28 attempts. On 8 June 2018, Majer was awarded the Best Young Footballer award by the

Croatian Football Federation The Croatian Football Federation ( hr, Hrvatski nogometni savez, HNS) is the governing body of association football in Croatia. It was originally formed in 1912 and is based in the capital city of Zagreb. The organisation is a member of both FIF ...

for his performances in the 2017–18 Prva HNL season, and was also named in the Team of the Season. During his tenure at Lokomotiva, he sparked interest from

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

Dinamo Zagreb

On 27 June 2018, Majer officially signed for Dinamo Zagreb and chose the number 10 shirt. On 27 July, in his

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 ...

debut for Dinamo, he injured his ankle as Dinamo drew 1–1 with Rudeš. He was forced to undergo surgery and miss the first half of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. However, Majer was not getting many chances during coach

Nenad Bjelica Nenad Bjelica (; born 20 August 1971) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who was most recently in charge of Prva HNL club Osijek. Club career Born in Osijek, Bjelica started playing for a local club, Metalac Olt ...

's tenure at the club. Most of it was due to the form of his teammate

Dani Olmo Daniel Olmo Carvajal (born 7 May 1998) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Spain national team. He can play as either an attacking midfielder or a winger. After a period at FC Barcelona, he ma ...

who played in the same position. On 13 July 2019, in the

Croatian Super Cup The Croatian Football Super Cup is a football match between the winners of the Croatian national top league and football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a new football season, and is only held when different clubs win the t ...

, Majer was substituted on for

Izet Hajrović Izet Hajrović (; born 4 August 1991) is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Super League Greece club Aris and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. Hajrović started his professional career at Grasshoppers, befor ...

in the 82nd minute and received two

yellow cards Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

within three minutes. On 11 December, he made his Champions League debut as Dinamo lost 4–1 to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. Dissatisfied with his status in the team, Majer was on the verge of signing for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in July 2020, but the move was stopped by Dinamo. After both Bjelica and his successor

Igor Jovićević Igor Jovićević (; born 30 November 1973) is a Croatian former professional football player and current manager of Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk. Playing career After being labeled as the new Zvonimir Boban while playing in the youth team o ...

got fired, new coach

Zoran Mamić Zoran Mamić (; born 30 September 1971) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player, and convicted fraudster. He was most recently the manager of Croatian First Football League club Dinamo Zagreb. He is a wanted criminal in C ...

began relying on Majer more, which led to an impressive performance against

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

on 24 July 2020, when he scored the opener and provided Mario Ćuže with an assist for the second goal in the 2–0 victory. Ahead of the 2020–21 season, Dinamo's league rivals

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

attempted to sign Majer, but failed to do so as Dinamo refused to sell the player. On 16 August, in the first game of the

, he scored a brace in a 6–0 victory over his former club Lokomotiva. Following his good performances during the beginning of the season, Italian media reported that

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

scouts watched Majer in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

match against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

that ended in a goalless draw on 22 October. On 16 November, Majer tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which forced him to miss the derby against Osijek, now coached by Bjelica, on 21 November. Upon completion of the Europa League group stage, Majer was praised for his performances, as Dinamo topped their

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

with Majer scoring twice and assisting three times in the process. On 21 December, Majer signed a new contract, tying him up with the club until 2026. During the winter transfer window, Majer attracted attention of

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, but Dinamo refused to sell the player, dissatisfied with the offered transfer fees. On 25 August 2021, in the second leg of the Champions League play-offs against

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff (russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a Moldovan professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnist ...

, Majer made his hundredth and final appearance for Dinamo.

Rennes

On 26 August 2021, Majer signed a five-year deal with

side

for €12 million with add-ons. He made his

debut three days later, in a 2–0 loss to

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

, getting substituted on for Benjamin Bourigeaud in the 82nd minute. Majer established himself as a key member of the team during the autumn, resulting in a breakthrough performance during the 4–1 victory over

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

on 7 November. He scored his first goal for Rennes on 20 November, in a 2–0 league victory over

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

. On 5 December, he provided

Martin Terrier Martin Albert Frédéric Terrier (born 4 March 1997) is a French professional association football, footballer who plays as winger (association football), winger or forward (association football), forward for Ligue 1 club Stade Rennais F.C., Ren ...

with three assists for his

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

, and set Yvann Maçon's

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

alongside Lorenz Assignon, as Rennes defeated

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

5–0. At the end of the

, during which he was praised for his performances, Majer accumulated six goals and nine assists and was named in the Ligue 1 team of the season by ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby football, rugby, motorsport, and cycle sport, ...

''.

International career

Majer debuted for senior

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 ...

team on 28 May 2017, playing the last three minutes in a 2–1 friendly win over

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. On 7 June 2019, he was named in

Nenad Gračan Nenad Gračan (born 23 January 1962) is a Croatian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the coach of the Croatia women's national football team. Club career Born in Rijeka, SFR Yugoslavia, Gračan started playin ...

's 23-man squad for UEFA Under-21 Euro 2019. He made only one appearance in the

stage, in the 3–3 draw with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

when Croatia were already eliminated. On 9 March 2021, he was again named in

Igor Bišćan Igor Bišćan (; born 4 May 1978) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Croatia national under-21 team. In his playing career, he was a versatile player and could play almost every position in th ...

's 23-man squad for the group stage of UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021. Despite spending most of the tournament on the bench due to a minor injury, he provided Domagoj Bradarić with an assist for Croatia's only goal in the final

game, the 2–1 defeat to England, which turned out to be a decisive one as Croatia progressed to the

knockout stage A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

due to a better goal difference. On 17 May 2021, he was included in

Zlatko Dalić Zlatko Dalić (; born 26 October 1966) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of the Croatia national team since 2017 and led them to a runners-up finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and third place at the ...

's preliminary 34-man squad for the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

; however, he did not make the final 26. On 11 November 2021, Majer scored his first two goals for the national team in the 7–1 victory over

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in the 2022 World Cup qualifying. On 9 November 2022, he was named in Croatia's final 26-man squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

. He opened his World Cup scoring with a goal in the 4–1

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

victory over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In the

quarter-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, he scored a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

in the

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

, which Croatia won 4–2 and progressed to the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Croatia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Majer goal.''

Honours

Dinamo Zagreb *

: 2018–19, 2019–20,

2020–21 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Croatia *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

third place:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual *

Football Oscar The Football Oscar ( hr, Nogometni Oscar) is an annual football award given by the Croatian Association Football Union and Sportske novosti since 2013. In the 2017 edition the award was renamed as Trophy Footballer ( hr, Trofej Nogometaš). It is aw ...

— Best Prva HNL U-21 Player:

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 ser ...

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 United ...

— Prva HNL Team of The Year:

* HNS Trophy — Best Young Player: 2018

References

External links

*
Profile
at GNKDinamo.hr * {{DEFAULTSORT:Majer, Lovro 1998 births Living people Footballers from Zagreb Men's association football midfielders Croatian footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Lokomotiva Zagreb players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players Stade Rennais F.C. players Croatian Football League players Ligue 1 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Croatian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Croatian expatriate sportspeople in France