Danijel Štefulj (born 2 June 1973) is a retired Croatian

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 played as a defender or

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 ...

. During his 16-year-long professional career, Štefulj played for several clubs in Croatia and Germany, most notably

Croatia Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cro ...

(now Dinamo Zagreb) and

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

Club career

Born in

Čakovec Čakovec (; ; ; ) is a city in Northern Croatia, located around north of Zagreb, the Croatian capital, and close to the borders with Slovenia and Hungary. Čakovec is both the county seat and the largest city of Međimurje County, the northernmo ...

, Štefulj started his professional career with NK Varteks in 1992, before transferring to

in the winter break of the 1995–96 season. During the 1997–98 season, he also spent a few months on loan to

NK Slaven Belupo Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo (), often referred to as Slaven Belupo, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of Croatia. They play their home matches at Gradski stadion in Koprivnica. They play in ...

. In 1999, he moved to German side

, who played in the 2. Bundesliga at the time. He established himself as a regular at the club, appearing in a total of 95 league matches over the following three seasons and helping the club gain promotion to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

in 2002. He scored a total of 14 league goals during the three seasons. During the 2002–03 season, he appeared in a total of 22 Bundesliga matches for Hannover, scoring his only goal of the season in a 4–2 win against 1. FC Nürnberg in February 2003. The following season, he made 9 more Bundesliga appearances for Hannover before being loaned to Nuremberg in February 2004, making 16 appearances for the club in the 2nd Bundesliga until the end of the season and scoring two goals for the club in a 4–3 win at

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its Association football, football section. The footba ...

in May 2004. He also helped Nuremberg return to the top flight for the 2004–05 season. He then returned to Hannover following the end of the 2003–04 season, but only made 4 Bundesliga appearances for the club throughout the entire 2004–05 Bundesliga season. In the summer of 2005, he moved to

SC Paderborn 07 Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest success since the ...

, where he only made one appearance in the 2nd Bundesliga before moving to

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 1955. The latt ...

in the winter break of the 2005–06 season and making 10 appearances for the club in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

. He also helped Essen gain promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2006–07 season, but made no appearances in the league before leaving for

NK Međimurje NK Međimurje is a Croatian football club based in Čakovec. The club is named after Međimurje, the region in northern Croatia where the city of Čakovec is located. The club plays their home games at the Stadion SRC Mladost, Čakovec, whic ...

in January 2007. He finished his senior career with Međimurje during the 2007–08 season, but had a few years at Austrian fifth and sixth tier sides.

International career

Štefulj made four international appearances for the Croatian national under-21 football team between 1993 and 1996, all in international friendlies. He also won two full international caps for

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in their friendly matches against

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 ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1996.

Personal life

He has a son named

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

, which is pronounced the same, but with different spelling. Daniel is also a footballer and has played for

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

, a club unassociated with the club Štefulj played for, NK Varteks, which had changed name to NK Varaždin in 2010, then folded in 2015.

References

External links

*
Štefulj Danijel profile
at Nogometni Magazin {{DEFAULTSORT:Stefulj, Danijel 1973 births Living people Footballers from Čakovec Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Varaždin (1931–2015) players GNK Dinamo Zagreb players NK Slaven Belupo players Hannover 96 players 1. FC Nürnberg players SC Paderborn 07 players Rot-Weiss Essen players NK Međimurje players Croatian Football League players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Austrian 2. Landesliga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria