Lovre Kalinić (; born 3 April 1990) 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 lea ...

who plays 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

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

Club career

Hajduk Split

Lovre Kalinić made his

HNK Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Split, Croatia, Split, that competes in the Croatian First Football League, Cro ...

debut on 23 April 2011, under manager

Ante Miše Ante Miše (born 14 June 1967) is a Croatian football manager and former professional football player who played as a midfielder. As a player, he earned 7 caps in friendlies for Croatia in the period from 1992 to 1994. Playing career Club In ...

at the age of 21 years and 20 days, in a

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

match against

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 ...

, which his side won, 2–1. After loans to Junak Sinj in 2009, Novalja in 2010 and

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. In the 2021 census, its population was 49,377. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located southwest of Zagreb and northeast of Rijeka, and is connected to them via the ...

in 2012, Hajduk manager Igor Tudor brought Lovre Kalinić back to

to be the number one goalkeeper for the 2013–14 season. In the 2015–16 season, Kalinić set a new record for most consecutive minutes without a goal conceded in the 1. HNL. The goalkeeper went eight games, or 775 minutes, without conceding a goal. The previous record was held by Zoran Slavica, who went 711 minutes without conceding a goal in the Prva HNL. As a result of being part of

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 ...

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

squad, Kalinić missed the first three rounds of Hajduk's 2016–17 season, being granted an extended holiday by Hajduk boss

Marijan Pušnik Marijan Pušnik (born 1 November 1960) is a Slovenian football manager. Managerial career Pušnik started his managerial career with Dravograd in 1994 but landed his first serious job as Celje manager in 2000. During his four years at Celje, ...

. He made his return on 28 July 2016, where Hajduk defeated FC Oleksandriya 3–0 in the Third Round of the

2016–17 UEFA Europa League The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League was the 46th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the eighth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played between Ajax and ...

qualifying at CSC Nika Stadium, keeping a clean sheet. In September 2016, Kalinić signed a new five-year contract with Hajduk. In his time at Hajduk, Kalinić made 134 official appearances across seven seasons. In total, Kalinić spent 17 years of junior and senior football with Hajduk.

Gent

On 27 December 2016, Hajduk announced that Lovre Kalinić had played his last game for the club, with a move to

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

side K.A.A. Gent completed. The transfer fee is the highest fee for a goalkeeper in the history of the

. The €3.1m transfer fee will make Kalinić the most expensive player in Gent's history. He was named Best Goalkeeper in the Belgian league for the 2016–17 season, after having played only half a season upon arriving in January to Gent from Hajduk Split.

Aston Villa

On 21 December 2018, English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

announced that they had reached an agreement with Gent to sign Kalinić at the start of the January transfer window. Villa had already attempted to sign Kalinić in 2016 but were denied a work permit. He signed a contract to the end of the 2022–23 season. He officially joined on 1 January 2019 and made his debut four days later in a 3–0 defeat in a home

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

tie against Swansea City. His league debut came a week later in another 3–0 defeat, this time against

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

, which was followed by a 2–2 draw with Hull City – meaning that Kalinić had conceded 8 goals in his first 3 games. He played what would prove to be his last game for the club against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

on 16 February 2019.

Toulouse (loan)

On 20 January 2020, Kalinić joined

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

club

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

until the end of the 2019–20 season. However, he made only four appearances before the league was called off due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Hajduk Split (loan)

On 22 December 2020, after making no appearances for Villa in the 2020–21 season up to that point, it was announced that Kalinić would go out on loan to Hajduk Split, where he started his career. The loan was scheduled to commence on 18 January 2021 – when the Croatian

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

opened. On 22 January, he made his second debut for Hajduk in a 1–0 league victory over

Šibenik Šibenik (), historically known as Sebenico (), is a historic town in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka (Croatia), Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is one of the oldest Croatia, Croatian self-governing cities ...

. On 11 July 2021, Aston Villa announced that Kalinić would rejoin Hajduk Split on loan for another season. Kalinić explained that Aston Villa had wanted to sell him to another club, but he was adamant that he wanted to return to Hajduk Split as he had been named club captain. Eventually, an agreement for a second season on loan was agreed by all parties.

Permanent return to Hajduk Split

On 1 July 2022, Kalinić signed for Hajduk Split once again, this time on a permanent transfer. The details were not announced by either club, but it was rumoured to have been a free transfer.

International career

After Stipe Pletikosa retired from international football in 2014, Kalinić became

's second choice goalkeeper behind Danijel Subašić. He made his debut for

in a November 2014

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

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 ...

. He was part of Croatia's

squad. In May 2018 he was named in Croatia's 23-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

in Russia. He played the last match of the group stage against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

making several crucial saves. Croatia finished as the runners-up of the tournament, losing 4–2 to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. After the tournament ended, Subašić retired from international football. Kalinić has thus been appointed as the first choice goalkeeper for the national team. However, due to injuries and the consequent drop in form, he was benched again in favour of Dominik Livaković. He was an unused substitute at the delayed

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

, as Livaković played all four matches, and remained on the standby list for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, as Ivica Ivušić and Ivo Grbić were chosen to be reserve goalkeepers. Kalinić's last game for Croatia was a November 2019 friendly against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, where he failed to save a weak shot from Giorgi Papunashvili, giving the Georgians the lead. However, Croatia turned the match into a 2–1 victory.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Hajduk Split * Croatian Cup: 2012–13, 2021–22, 2022–23 Aston Villa * EFL Championship play-offs:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Croatia *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

runner-up:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Individual * Football Oscar Best Goalkeeper in

: 2015, 2016 * Best AA Gent-Player of the Season: 2016–17 * Belgian Professional Goalkeeper of the Season: 2016–17 * Belgian Goalkeeper of the Year:

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 ...

Orders *

Order of Duke Branimir: 2018

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalinic, Lovre 1990 births Living people Footballers from Split, Croatia Men's association football goalkeepers Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's under-21 international footballers Croatia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players HNK Hajduk Split players NK Junak Sinj players NK Novalja players NK Karlovac 1919 players K.A.A. Gent players Aston Villa F.C. players Toulouse FC players Croatian Football League players Belgian Pro League players English Football League players Ligue 1 players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in England Croatian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in France Croatian expatriate sportspeople in France