Marin Skender (born 12 August 1979) is a Croatian retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Career

Advancing through the youth ranks of NK Osijek, Skender went on to start his senior career with amateur side

NK Olimpija Osijek NK Olimpija is a Croatian football club based in the city of 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 reg ...

in 2000, moving to

NK Vukovar '91 HNK Vukovar '91 was a Croatian Association football, football club based in the river port of Vukovar. Under the name NK Vukovar '91, club was founded in Zagreb by Vukovar refugees during the Croatian War of Independence. In 1992, newly founded ...

the following year. After spending two seasons with Vukovar, he returned to NK Osijek in the summer of 2003 and joined their first team competing in the Croatian First League. He soon found his place as a regular at NK Osijek, appearing in all of their domestic league games for three consecutive seasons between 2005 and 2008, as well as being the club's first-choice goalkeeper for more than five years. During this time, he was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the Croatian top flight, even earning himself a call-up to the Croatia national team at the beginning of their qualifying campaign for the

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

in the summer of 2006. During the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers, Skender competed with

Mario Galinović Mario Galinović (born 15 November 1976) is a former Croatian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career NK Osijek Galinović started his professional career with Croatian First League side NK Osijek, where he was part of the first te ...

for the place of the national team's third-choice goalkeeper behind

Stipe Pletikosa Stipe Pletikosa (; born 8 January 1979) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. As of 29 July 2021, he works at the Croatian Football Federation as the technical director of the national senior and under-21 tea ...

and

Vedran Runje Vedran Runje (; born 10 February 1976) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. A product of Hajduk Split academy, Runje spent the majority of his career abroad with Standard Liège in Belgium, Marseille and Lens in France an ...

, being named on the bench for Croatia's away game at

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in November 2006, where he remained an unused substitute as Runje played the entire game. Following the end of the 2008–09 season, he was released from his contract at NK Osijek and was without a club until

NK Zagreb Nogometni klub Zagreb (''Zagreb Football Club''), commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb (), is a Croatian amateur football club based in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of ...

signed him in October 2009. Following the end of the 2009–10 season, he was released from his contract at NK Zagreb and was without a club until

NK 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 ...

signed him in September 2010. He was signed by

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

side

SønderjyskE SønderjyskE is a Danish sport corporation. They have a football team (SønderjyskE Fodbold, based in Haderslev), two handball teams (SønderjyskE Håndbold, one male based in Sønderborg, one female based in Aabenraa) and an ice hockey team (S ...

on 26 January 2013

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skender, Marin 1979 births Living people Footballers from Osijek Men's association football goalkeepers Croatian men's footballers NK Olimpija Osijek players HNK Vukovar '91 players NK Osijek players NK Zagreb players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players FC Dila Gori players Sønderjyske Fodbold players Croatian Football League players Erovnuli Liga players Danish Superliga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Georgia (country) Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Georgia (country) Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark