Antonini Čulina (born 27 January 1992) is a

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

ian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who last played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Hapoel Afula in Israel, as of July 2021 working as

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka (), commonly referred to as HNK Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka competes in Croatia's top division, Croatian First Football League, Supersport HNL, o ...

's assistant sporting director.

Club career

Čulina has spent the first three years of his career with

, scoring 9 goals and becoming a regular starter. In July 2013, Rijeka loaned Čulina to

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

in Italy's

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

. Following two seasons on loan with Spezia and

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

, in mid-2015 Čulina signed for

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

. On 13 September 2019, he returned to Italy, signing with

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

club Viterbese. On 31 January 2020, he signed a contract with

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

until the end of the season, with the club holding an option to extend it for the 2020–21 season. On 7 December 2020 signed in Hapoel Afula. On 2 July 2021

announced Čulina's retirement from professional football and that he would join the club as assistant to their sporting director, Robert Palikuća. Antonini Čulina preuzeo ulogu asistenta sportske administracije
at

official site

International

He has also been capped for Croatia's Under-19 and Under-21 side.

References

External links

* * 1992 births Living people Footballers from Zadar Croatian men's footballers Croatian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers HNK Rijeka players HNK Rijeka non-playing staff Spezia Calcio players SSD Varese Calcio players FC Lugano players KS Cracovia players NK Inter Zaprešić players US Viterbese 1908 players Calcio Padova players Hapoel Afula F.C. players Croatian Football League players Serie B players Swiss Super League players Ekstraklasa players Serie C players Liga Leumit players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Israel 21st-century Croatian sportsmen {{Croatia-footy-midfielder-stub