Andraž Šporar (born 27 February 1994) is 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 lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

club

Alanyaspor Alanyaspor Kulübü, known as Corendon Alanyaspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Alanya in Antalya Province. Formed in 1948, the club colours are orange and green. Home matches are play ...

and the Slovenia national team.

Club career

Olimpija Ljubljana

In June 2012, Šporar transferred from Interblock to Olimpija Ljubljana. In the 2015–16 Slovenian PrvaLiga season, Šporar was named a team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. During the first half of the club's season, he played 18 PrvaLiga games and scored 17 goals.

Basel

On 8 December 2015,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

announced that Šporar had signed a four-and-a-half-year contract up until the end of June 2020. He joined Basel's first team for their 2015–16 season under head coach Urs Fischer. After playing in four friendly games, he made his

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

debut on 14 February 2016 in a 4–0 away win against Grasshopper Club. Just a few days later, on 18 February, Šporar got injured during

warm-up 'Warming up' is a part of stretching and preparation for physical exertion or a performance by exercising or practicing gently beforehand, usually undertaken before a performance or practice. Athletes, singers, actors and others warm up before s ...

before the away match against

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

. The torn tendon required surgery and this kept Šporar out for the rest of the season. At the end of the season his team won the

2015–16 Swiss Super League The 2015–16 Swiss Super League, also known as Raiffeisen Super League for sponsoring purposes, was the 119th season of top-tier football in Switzerland. Basel were the defending champions. A total of 10 teams competed in the league, the 9 be ...

championship. Šporar scored his first goal for Basel on 15 April 2017 in a 4–0 away victory over Lausanne-Sport. At the end of the 2016–17 Super League season, Šporar won the championship for the second time. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the 2016–17 Swiss Cup, defeating Sion 3–0 in the final. Despite this success, Šporar decided to leave the club. He played a total of 26 competitive games for Basel, and scored one goal.

Arminia Bielefeld (loan)

On 25 June 2017, Šporar joined 2. Bundesliga side

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

on loan for the 2017–18 season.

Slovan Bratislava

Šporar joined the

Slovak First League The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

side Slovan Bratislava in January 2018 for a reported fee of €600,000. In his first season, he won the

2017–18 Slovak Cup The 2017–18 Slovak Cup was the 49th edition of the competition. This tournament began on 22 July 2017. The winners of the cup, ŠK Slovan Bratislava, Slovan Bratislava, earned a place in the 2018–19 Europa League and would have joined the comp ...

. In the 2018–19 season, Slovan won the league title, and Šporar became the league's top scorer with 29 goals, equaling the record for the number of goals scored in a season in the Slovak First League.

Sporting

On 23 January 2020, Šporar transferred to

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

on a five-year contract for a transfer fee of €6 million, making him the most expensive player in the history of the Slovak Super Liga. With bonuses, the total transfer fee may eventually rise above €7 million.

Braga (loan)

On 1 February 2021, Šporar joined

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2020–21 season.

Middlesbrough (loan)

In August 2021, he joined English side

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

on loan. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

on 15 September 2021.

Panathinaikos

On 27 July 2022, Šporar signed a four-year contract with

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

side Panathinaikos for a reported transfer fee of over €3 million.

International career

In November 2016, Šporar received his first call-up to the Slovenia senior squad for the matches against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. He debuted against the former, replacing

Milivoje Novaković Milivoje Novaković (; sr-Cyrl, Миливоје Новаковић, ; born 18 May 1979) is a Slovenian retired footballer who played as a forward. Club career Novaković spent his youth career at Olimpija where he remained until the age o ...

late in the second half. On 7 September 2023, Šporar scored two goals against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, becoming the tenth player in the Slovenia national team's history to reach double digits of international goals. In June 2024, Šporar was included in the 26-man Slovenian squad for

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

, his first major international tournament.

Personal life

Andraž Šporar is the son of Olimpija's former captain Miha Šporar. In the past, Šporar has stated his ambition to earn a move to

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, which is his favourite club. Liverpool followed the player in 2015, but in the end there was no transfer.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Šporar goal''.

Honours

Basel *

: 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

: 2016–17 Slovan Bratislava *

: 2018–19 *

Slovak Cup The Slovak Cup (), currently named Slovnaft Cup due to sponsorship agreement with Slovnaft, is the only nationwide Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in Football in Slovakia, Slovak football. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Euro ...

: 2017–18 Sporting CP *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

Braga *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

Panathinaikos *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2023–24 Individual *

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

Top Scorer: 2015–16 * Slovak First League Top Scorer: 2018–19, 2019–20 * Slovak First League Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Slovak First League Player of the Month: November/December 2018, May 2019, November/December 2019 *Slovak First League Goal of the Month: October 2019 *Slovak First League Team of the Season: 2018–19, 2019–20 *

Player of the Month: August 2022

References

External links

Andraž Šporar
at NZS *
Andraž Šporar
at Swiss Football League {{DEFAULTSORT:Sporar, Andraz 1994 births Living people Footballers from Ljubljana Slovenian men's footballers 21st-century Slovenian sportsmen Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Slovenian Second League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Swiss Super League players Swiss Promotion League players 2. Bundesliga players Slovak First Football League players Primeira Liga players English Football League players Super League Greece players Süper Lig players NK IB 1975 Ljubljana players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players FC Basel players Arminia Bielefeld players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Sporting CP footballers S.C. Braga players Middlesbrough F.C. players Panathinaikos F.C. players Alanyaspor footballers UEFA Euro 2024 players Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey