Luka Krajnc (born 19 September 1994) is a Slovenian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Slovenian PrvaLiga 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 ...

Club career

Krajnc began his football career at the age of eight, when his father took him to the Slovenian club

for a trial. He signed his first professional contract with Maribor at the age of 16 and played for the main squad in a couple of

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

matches. On 29 May 2011, he played his first and only

1. SNL 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 ...

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 being 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 when it was surpassed by Petar Stojanović. On 3 April 2011, Krajnc signed a pre-contract with Italian Serie A club Genoa. 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 and was assigned to Genoa's youth team, which he also captained, before making his debut for the first team on 27 October 2012 at San Siro in a league match against AC Milan. With 18 years, one month and 14 days, he became the youngest Slovenian player with an appearance in the Italian top division, Serie A. On 3 July 2013, he moved to Cesena in a 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. On 20 June 2018, Frosinone turned Krajnc's loan into a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee. In September 2020, he joined Fortuna Düsseldorf on a season-long loan. On 24 August 2021, Krajnc joined

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 ...

on a three-year contract. On 23 August 2023, Krajnc returned to Italy and signed a two-year deal with Catanzaro. After 13 years of playing abroad, Krajnc returned to his childhood club Maribor on 7 September 2024 and signed a contract until 2026 with the option for another year.

International career

Krajnc has represented Slovenia at all youth levels from under-16 to under-21. 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 on 30 March 2015, replacing

Dominic Maroh Dominic Maroh (born 4 March 1987) is a Slovenian professional football coach and a former defender. He is an assistant coach for the Under-16 squad of German club VfB Stuttgart. Club career Maroh began his career at TSV Neckartailfingen, playe ...

after 65 minutes in an eventual 1–0 friendly defeat against Qatar at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.

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 Podvelka () is a village in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Podvelka. It lies in the traditional region of Styria, but belongs to the Carinthia Statistical Region. The settlement is situated on the right bank of the Dr ...

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

Luka Krajnc
at

NZS NZS may refer to: * Football Association of Slovenia * Independent Students Union (Poland) *New Zealand Standard and "joint Australian/New Zealand Standard" (AS/NZS) by Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand * New Zealand Steel *New Zealand ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krajnc, Luka 1994 births Living people Footballers from Ptuj Men's association football defenders Slovenian men's footballers Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers NK Maribor players Genoa CFC players AC Cesena players Cagliari Calcio players UC Sampdoria players Frosinone Calcio players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Hannover 96 players US Catanzaro 1929 players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Serie A players Serie B players 2. Bundesliga players Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany