Luka Krajnc (born 19 September 1994) 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

Club career

Krajnc began his football career at the age of eight when his father took him on a trial with the Slovenian football club

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

. He signed his first professional contract with Maribor at the age of 16 and played for the main squad in a couple of friendly matches. On 29 May 2011, he played his first and only 1. SNL match for Maribor in the last round of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, with Maribor already crowned champions. At the time of his debut he was the youngest player ever with an appearance for Maribor in a 1. SNL match, a record which lasted until 25 March 2012. On 3 April 2011, Krajnc signed a pre-contract with Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

. The transfer fee paid by Genoa was undisclosed, but was reported to be close to €1 million. He joined his new club on 1 July 2011. He began his career at Genoa with their Primavera side which he also captained, before making a debut for the main squad on 27 October 2012 at

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in ...

in a league match against

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

. With 18 years, one month and 14 days he became the youngest Slovenian player ever with an appearances in the Italian top division, Serie A. On 3 July 2013 he moved to

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was o ...

in temporary co-ownership deal. In June 2015 Genoa acquired Cesena's share and became the sole owner of the player's rights. On 31 August 2016, Krajnc joined

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, ...

on a season-long loan. In the second part of the 2016–17 season, he was loaned to

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...

. On 20 June 2018, Frosinone turned Krajnc's loan into a permanent deal for undisclosed fee. In September 2020, he joined

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

on a season-long loan. On 24 August 2021, Krajnc joined

on a three-year contract.

International career

Krajnc has represented Slovenia at all youth levels from under-16 to under-21. On 30 March 2015 he made his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

international debut, replacing Dominic Maroh after 65 minutes of an eventual 1–0 friendly defeat to

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

Style of play

Krajnc, who is left footed, primarily plays in central defence and is praised for his pace, strength, passing and ability on the ball.

Personal life

Krajnc is from Kapla na Kozjaku in the hilly region of northeastern Slovenia near the Austrian border, roughly 37 km from the city of

. Before moving to Maribor he usually had to study and do his homework on the back seat of his father's car, traveling to and from training.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krajnc, Luka 1994 births Living people People from Ptuj Slovenian footballers Men's association football defenders Slovenian PrvaLiga players Serie A players Serie B players 2. Bundesliga players NK Maribor players Genoa C.F.C. players A.C. Cesena players Cagliari Calcio players U.C. Sampdoria players Frosinone Calcio players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Hannover 96 players Slovenian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers