Matej Rapnik (born 24 February 1990) is a Slovenian retired

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. He captained

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

from under-15 level up to under-19 level and played for the under-21s.

Club career

In July 2007, Rapnik signed for

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

side Heart of Midlothian where he made the bench on several occasions but never made a first team appearance. On 30 January 2009 it was revealed that he had left Hearts to return to Slovenia. On 9 February 2009 Rapnik joined Interblock in his home town of

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 ...

on a three-year contract.Interblock signed new defender
NK Interblock.eu 9 February 2009 He made his debut against

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

on 21 February 2009 and scored his first goal a week later against

Rudar Velenje Nogometni klub Rudar Velenje ( en, Rudar Velenje Football Club), commonly referred to as NK Rudar Velenje or simply Rudar Velenje, is a Slovenian football club from Velenje which competes in the Slovenian Second League. History The club was fo ...

in a 2–1 defeat. However, he could not help his new team to better than a ninth-place finish in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, which meant they had to face a

relegation play-off In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

. They were beaten 4–0 on aggregate by Triglav Kranj and were consigned to the Slovenian Second League for the 2010–11 season. After the 2011–12 season Interblock merged with Rapnik's former club NK Bravo to become Bravo1 Interblock and began to field only youth teams and therefore no longer had a senior squad, leading to Rapnik's departure after 67 appearances and seven goals in all competitions. On 24 August 2012, Slovenian PrvaLiga club

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

announced that they had signed Rapnik. He made his competitive debut on 16 September 2012 in a 1–0 away defeat to

International career

Rapnik has represented and captained his country at several youth levels, including under-19s. He featured in all three of their games as they finished bottom of their group at the

2009 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship 2009 Final Tournament was held in Ukraine in the cities of Donetsk and Mariupol. Players born after 1 January 1990 were eligible to participate in this competition. Qualification Qualification for the final ...

in Ukraine, which included a 7–1 defeat against

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 ...

. He was a member of the under-21 team, having made his debut in a 2–1 defeat to

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 ...

on 16 November 2010.

Honours

Interblock * Slovenian Cup: 2008–09

References

External links

Matej Rapnik
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rapnik, Matej 1990 births Living people Footballers from Slovenj Gradec Men's association football defenders Slovenian men's footballers Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers NK IB 1975 Ljubljana players NK Celje players Matej Rapnik Matej Rapnik NK Dravograd players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Slovenian Second League players Matej Rapnik Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Thailand