Ivan Vargić (; born 15 March 1987) is a Croatian former

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 last played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Krk Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...

. He had played for Slovenian club

FC Koper Football Club Koper, commonly referred to as FC Koper or simply Koper, is a Slovenian football club based in Koper that competes in the Slovenian First League, the top flight of Slovenian football. The club was founded in 1920. They won the Sl ...

in the years before returning to Croatia.

Club career

Osijek

Following two loans to HNK Vukovar '91 in Croatia's 2. HNL and

FC Honka FC Honka is a Finland, Finnish Association football, football club based in Espoo. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. The club will play in Kakkonen in the 2024 season, after Esport Honka filed for ...

in Finland's

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

, Vargić made his debut with

NK Osijek Nogometni klub Osijek (), commonly referred to as NK Osijek (), is a Croatian professional association football, football sports club, club from Osijek. Founded in 1947, it was the club from Slavonia with the most seasons in the Yugoslav First Le ...

in 1. HNL in April 2009. He earned 36 league caps before he left the club in 2013.

Rijeka

On 5 February 2013,

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 ...

announced that they have signed Vargić on a -year contract. During the 2015–16 1. HNL season, Vargić broke two Rijeka records: the longest streak without conceding a goal and goalkeeper who kept most clean sheets in one season. From 2 August 2015 to 4 October 2015, he did not concede a goal for 783 consecutive minutes, which is the second longest streak in the history of 1. HNL. During the 2015–16 1. HNL season, he conceded only 13 goals in 32 appearances, keeping 21 clean sheets. With 23 appearances, Vargić is also the club's most capped goalkeeper in Europe.

Lazio and loans

On 1 February 2016, both Croatian and Italian press reported that

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

have signed Vargić for a fee of €2.7 million. Lazio immediately sent Vargić on loan to Rijeka until 30 June 2016. On 3 September 2018, Vargić joined Cypriot club

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

on a season-long loan. On 6 February 2020, he joined

Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...

in Slovenia on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season. Koper activated buyout clause and he stayed in the club until June 2021.

Return to Croatia

After spending two seasons in 3rd-tier Croatian club

, he retired from professional football in June 2024.

International career

Vargić was a member of Croatia under-21 national team. On 12 November 2014, he made his senior national team debut in a friendly game against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, entering as a substitute for Lovre Kalinić. Vargić went on to cap his national side for two more times, and the last match of his national career being against Northern Ireland in 2016.

Honours

;Rijeka * Croatian Cup:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Croatian Super Cup:

;Lazio *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vargic, Ivan 1987 births Living people Footballers from Osijek Men's association football goalkeepers Croatian men's footballers Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players NK Osijek players HNK Vukovar '91 players FC Honka players HNK Rijeka players SS Lazio players Anorthosis Famagusta FC players FC Koper players NK Krk players Croatian Football League players Serie A players Cypriot First Division players Slovenian Second League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia 21st-century Croatian sportsmen