Džoni Novak (born 4 September 1969) is a Slovenian former 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He represented his country at

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

and the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

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 are ...

, he started his professional career playing at Olimpija in 1988. He played there two seasons before signing for Serbian club

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

. He played in Belgrade for a season and a half, appearing in 20 matches and scoring nine league goals for the club before leaving it for Fenerbahçe. After only a season in Turkey, he returned to Olimpija. Playing for Olimpija, Novak appeared in 63

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

matches and scored ten goals. He also won the Slovenian championship twice with the club, in 1994 and 1995, and the

Slovenian Cup Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

in 1996. Later he moved to French club

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...

. He played there for the next three seasons, appearing in 68 matches before leaving to join another French team,

CS Sedan Club Sportif Sedan Ardennes, commonly referred to as CS Sedan or simply Sedan (), is a French association football club based in Sedan. The club was formed in 1919 and plays its home matches at the Stade Louis Dugauguez located within the ci ...

. He spent only one season with Sedan and left the club, making 11 appearances. He moved on to Germany and signed with

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

. He stayed there two seasons, making 37 appearances and scoring one goal. After that he played for six months for Greek side

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

before retiring.

International career

During his spell at Partizan, he earned four caps for

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Even after the

independence of Slovenia The Ten-Day War ( sl, desetdnevna vojna), or the Slovenian War of Independence (), was a brief armed conflict that followed Slovenia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. It was fought between the separatists of the ...

, Novak was included by Yugoslavia in their squad for Euro 1992, along with Darko Milanič. However, the nation would be suspended due to the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

. He was also capped 71 times and scored three goals for

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 ...

. He was a participant at

and the

International goals

: ''Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first.''

Honours

Partizan *

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, ...

: 1991–92 Olimpija *

Slovenian Championship The Slovenian Hockey League is the highest level ice hockey league in Slovenia. The championship phase is contested after the regular season to determine the national champion. History The Slovenian Hockey League was firstly contested in the 1 ...

: 1993–94, 1994–95 *

: 1995–96 Olympiacos * Super League Greece: 2002–03

References

External links