Marko Elsner (11 April 196018 May 2020) was 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 played as a defender.

Club career

Born in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, capital of

SR Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...

(then part of Yugoslavia), Elsner played for

Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and ...

's youth team before returning to Ljubljana where he played with Slovan before joining Olimpija in 1977. In 1983 he was signed by

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

, where he stayed for four seasons. In this period he became a national team player as he was part of the Yugoslav team at the 1984 Olympics, and has won one Yugoslav championship and one

Yugoslav Cup The Yugoslav Cup ( hr, Pokal Jugoslavije; sr, Куп Југославије; sl, Pokal Jugoslavije, mk, Куп на Југославија), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Kup kralja Aleksandra, ...

during his spell with Red Star.Marko Elsner
at Reprezentacija.rs In 1987, he left Belgrade and moved abroad by signing with French

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 ...

side

OGC Nice Olympique Gymnaste Club Nice Côte d'Azur (), commonly referred to as OGC Nice or simply Nice, is a French professional football club based in Nice. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football. ...

. He played with Nice until 1993, except in 1990–91, when he played for the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

side Admira Wacker.

International career

Elsner played 14 games for the Yugoslavia national team between 1984 and 1988. After the independence of Slovenia, he made his debut for the Slovenia national team against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

on 18 November 1992. His last match was against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, a friendly on 7 April 1993, and the two games were his only two appearances for Slovenia.

Personal life

Elsner's father,

Branko Elsner Branko Elsner (23 November 1929 – 17 November 2012) was a Slovenian football manager and player, most known for being the manager of the Austria national team twice. Elsner had his first success as a football coach in his Slovenian homeland w ...

, was also a footballer and later a coach. His sons

Luka Luka may refer to: People * Luka (given name), a South Slavic masculine given name cognate of Luke, and a Japanese given name * Luka (singer), stage name of Brazilian singer and songwriter Luciana Karina Santos de Lima (born 1979) * Luka Keʻelik ...

and Rok are also former professional footballers. Elsner died on 18 May 2020 at the age of 60 due to illness.

Honours

Red Star Belgrade *

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

: 1983–84 *

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Yugoslavia national team *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

(bronze)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsner, Marko 1960 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Ljubljana Slovenian footballers Slovenian expatriate footballers Yugoslav footballers Yugoslav expatriate footballers Association football defenders Yugoslav First League players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Austrian Football Bundesliga players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players Red Star Belgrade footballers OGC Nice players FC Admira Wacker Mödling players Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in Austria Yugoslav expatriate sportspeople in France Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate footballers in France Olympic footballers of Yugoslavia Olympic bronze medalists for Yugoslavia Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1984 players Dual internationalists (football) Olympic medalists in football Yugoslavia international footballers Slovenia international footballers Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Elsner family