Marijana Rajčić (born 15 March 1989) is a retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

player. She played soccer professionally for

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

in the W-League and Australian rules football for

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW).

Soccer career

Prior to taking up Australian rules football, Rajcic had previously played

with

in the Australian W-League. Prior to that she had played fully professionally for Gustafs GoIF in the Elitettan for the 2012 season, and played for Box Hill United in the Victorian Women's Premier League when she returned to soccer after knee surgery. She considers captaining Adelaide United in 2015 the best achievement in her soccer career.

AFL Women's

Rajčić was drafted by

with their fourth selection and 32nd overall in the

2017 AFL Women's draft The 2017 AFL Women's draft consisted of the various periods when the eight clubs in the AFL Women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2018 AFL Women's season, 2018 season. As the previous season's player contracts wer ...

after just one season with

Norwood Football Club The Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Its home ground is Norwood Oval, Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is often referred ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

's Statewide Super Women's League. She previously took up the sport on the advice of a friend and in doing so followed the example of fellow dual-code players Brianna Davey, Ellie Brush and Jenna McCormick. Rajcic made her league debut in round 3 of the 2018 season in a seven-point win over the at

Norwood Oval Norwood Oval (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from the Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery) is a suburban oval in the western end of Norwood, South Australia, Norwood, an inner eastern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The ...

. In January 2023, Rajcic announced her retirement.

Personal life

In 2020, Rajčić competed on '' The Amazing Race Australia 5'' with

Chelsea Randall Chelsea Randall (born 14 June 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club#AFL Women's team, Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She is one of the club's inaugural AFLW team co-captains, and ...

as a "stowaway team". In post-show interviews, the two revealed that they had started dating before filming began. The pair announced their engagement on 5 March 2023 and the birth of their son on 29 October 2023. Rajčić is of Croatian descendant.

References

External links

* * Australian women's soccer players 21st-century Australian sportswomen Living people Adelaide United FC (women) players 1989 births Women's association football forwards Adelaide Football Club (AFLW) players Australian rules footballers from South Australia The Amazing Race contestants Australian lesbian sportswomen LGBTQ people from South Australia LGBTQ players of Australian rules football Sportswomen from South Australia {{AFL-bio-1980s-stub