Ivan Lendrić (born 8 August 1991) is a Croatian 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 plays as a centre-forward for Croatian side

Hrvatski Dragovoljac Nogometni klub Hrvatski dragovoljac ( en, Football Club Hrvatski dragovoljac), commonly referred to as NK Hrvatski dragovoljac or simply Hrvatski dragovoljac, is a Croatian football club based in the Novi Zagreb neighbourhood of the country's c ...

Club career

Born in Split, Lendrić rose through the ranks of the Hajduk Split Academy. In the 2009–10 season, his last youth level season, Lendrić was top scorer of the Croatian academy league and was voted best youth player by the Croatian sports daily ''

Sportske novosti ''Sportske novosti'' () is a Croatian daily sports newspaper based in Zagreb. It was established on 9 August 1945 as ''Ilustrirane fiskulturne novine'' weekly newspaper. Several months later, on 10 December 1945, its name got changed to ''Narodn ...

''. He turned professional in July 2010, but failed to break into the first team under coach

Stanko Poklepović Stanko "Špaco" Poklepović (19 April 1938 – 24 December 2018) was a Croatian professional football player and manager. Poklepović managed a number of teams over 46 years, including Hajduk Split on four occasions. He was also the first manage ...

so he was loaned to

Bosnian Premier League The m:tel Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, m:tel Premijer liga Bosne i Hercegovine / м:тел Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), also known as Liga 12, is the top tier football league in Bosnia and He ...

club

Zrinjski Mostar Zrinjski Mostar is a sports association from the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was formed in 1905. Member clubs *Football: **HŠK Zrinjski Mostar *Basketball: **HKK Zrinjski Mostar (men's) **ŽKK Zrinjski Mostar (women's) *Han ...

. While at Zrinjski, Lendrić became top scorer in the 2010–11 Bosnian championship with 16 goals. In summer 2011, he returned from the loan and joined the first team under coach

Krasimir Balakov Krasimir Genchev Balakov ( bg, Красимир Генчев Балъков, ; born 29 March 1966) is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player who last served as the head coach of Bulgarian club CSKA 1948. A former attacking ...

. In his first professional season with Hajduk, he scored four goals in nineteen appearances, playing mostly as a substitute. In June 2012, Lendrić signed a three-year contract with Belgian club

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish a ...

. After a moderately successful season at Zulte Waregem, Lokomotiva decided to bring the player back to the 1. HNL in a €500,000 deal. In January 2014, his contract with Lokomotiva was terminated after just six first team appearances and no goals. In February 2014, Lenrić signed with the Austrian Football Second League side Kapfenberger SV, where he scored five goals in fifteen appearances. On 30 August 2014, Lendrić signed with Italian side

FC Südtirol FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakist ...

. In 2015, Lendrić played for

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

Milsami Orhei Fotbal Club Milsami Orhei, commonly known as Milsami Orhei, or simply Milsami, is a Moldovan football club based in Orhei, Moldova, currently playing in the Moldovan Super Liga. Previously known as ''FC Viitorul Orhei'', it won its first league ...

, and

PAE Kerkyra PAE Kerkyra ( el, ΠΑΕ Κέρκυρα), was a Greek football club based in Corfu, Greece. The club played in the Gamma Ethniki, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system, following changes to the league structure in 2019. It played ...

. On 5 January 2016, Lendrić joined Bosnian Premier League side Željezničar. Željezničar finished the 2016–17 season as runners-up, with Lendrić becoming the league's top goalscorer with 19 goals. Lendrić then moved to French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

club Lens for a €300,000 fee in July 2017, and signed a three-year contract. After one season with Lens, his contract was terminated in June 2018. Lendrić went on trial with

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club Hibernian in July 2018, but was not offered a contract. On 8 August 2018, Lendrić signed with Slovenian club Olimpija Ljubljana. He scored his first and only goal for the club on his debut in a

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

game on 29 September against Triglav Kranj. On 4 December 2018, after only four months at Olimpija, Lendrić left the club. On 24 December 2018, Lendrić became the new player of

Romanian First League The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

club

Hermannstadt Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

. He scored his first goal for Hermannstadt on 19 April 2019, in a 1–1 home draw against Voluntari. On 21 June 2019, Lendrić returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina and signed a two-year contract with Zrinjski Mostar, the club he played for in the 2010–11 season. He made his official debut and scored his first goal for Zrinjski since 2011 on 11 July 2019, in a 3–0 away win against

Akademija Pandev Fudbalska Akademija Pandev ( mk, Фудбалска Академија Пандев), commonly known as Akademija Pandev ( mk, Академија Пандев), is a football club based in Strumica, North Macedonia which competes in the Macedonia ...

in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round. Lendrić made his first league appearance for Zrinjski after nine years on 21 July 2019, in a 1–0 away loss against

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

. He scored his first league goal since his return to Zrinjski on 24 August 2019, in a 4–0 home win against

Borac Banja Luka Fudbalski klub Borac Banja Luka (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Бopaц Бања Лука, ) is a Bosnian professional association football club, based in the city of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the major part of th ...

. On 10 December 2019, Lendrić decided to terminate his contract with Zrinjski and left the club. Two-and-a-half years after leaving Željezničar, on 7 January 2020, he returned to the

-based club, signing a one-and-a-half year contract. He played his first official match after his return to Željezničar on 22 February 2020, a 0–0 league draw against

Radnik Bijeljina Fudbalski klub Radnik Bijeljina ( sr-cyr, Фудбалски клуб Радник Бијељина) is a professional association football club based in the city of Bijeljina that is situated in northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club plays ...

on 22 February 2020. The first goal he scored since his return to the club was in a 3–0 win against Zvijezda 09 on 29 February 2020. Lendrić left Željezničar in May 2021.

International career

Internationally, Lendrić represented Croatia at all youth levels and was part of the squad that was called up for the

2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 18th FIFA U-20 World Cup. Colombia hosted the tournament between 29 July and 20 August 2011, with matches being played in eight cities. The tournament was won by Brazil who claimed their fifth title. At a FIFA ...

by manager

Ivica Grnja Ivan "Ivica" Grnja, also known as John Grnja (born 26 April 1949) is a Croatian football manager and former professional player. Playing career Grnja joined NK Osijek from Metalac Osijek in 1972, forming a formidable striking partnership with I ...

, where he scored a goal in Croatia's 5–2 defeat against

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Individual

Performance * Bosnian Premier League Top Goalscorer:

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 ...

(16 goals), 2016–17 (19 goals)

References

External links