Filip Lončarić

Filip Lončarić

Personal information
Date of birth	(1986-09-17) 17 September 1986
Place of birth	Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team	NK Osijek
Number	13
Youth career
1994–2005	Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2005–2012	Dinamo Zagreb	38	(0)
2006	→ Lokomotiva (loan)	0	(0)
2012	Gaz Metan Mediaş	3	(0)
2013–2014	Željezničar	23	(0)
2014–	Osijek	4	(0)
National team‡
2002	Croatia U16	8	(0)
2002–2003	Croatia U17	17	(0)
2003	Croatia U18	2	(0)
2003–2005	Croatia U19	13	(0)
2006–2007	Croatia U20	4	(0)
2007	Croatia U21	3	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 August 2014. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 18 August 2010

Filip Lončarić (born 17 September 1986) is a Croatian professional football goalkeeper who currently plays for NK Osijek.

Lončarić joined Dinamo Zagreb in 1994,^[1] aged just eight and made his breakthrough to the first-team squad for the 2005–06 season. He had a brief loan-spell at Dinamo Zagreb's feeder team Lokomotiva, but made no competitive appearances. With his club, Lončarić has won five Prva HNL titles, three Croatian Cup titles and two Croatian Supercups.

In the national team, Lončarić has played for the various youth selections from 2002 to 2007. He was capped a total of 47 times, most of which he made playing for the under-17 and under-19 teams.

Club career

Lončarić has been part of Dinamo Zagreb's first team since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, but went on to spend the second part of the season on loan to Lokomotiva, who played in the Treća HNL at the time. Returning to Dinamo Zagreb for the beginning of the 2006–07 season, he made his competitive debut for the club on 1 October 2006 in their 2–2 draw away at Hajduk Split, following a couple of blunders by the first-choice goalkeeper Ivan Turina early in the season. He subsequently became the club's first-choice goalkeeper and appeared in a total of 26 domestic league matches during the season.^[2]

However, following the club's signing of German goalkeeper Georg Koch in the summer of 2007, Lončarić once again found himself relegated to the bench and only appeared in two domestic league matches early in the season before sustaining an injury in a cup match in October 2007, which led to him being sidelined for most of the season and eventually losing his place as the club's second-choice goalkeeper to Ivan Kelava.^[2]

Following the departure of Koch in the summer of 2008, the club decided to re-sign former Croatian international goalkeeper Tomislav Butina to serve as the new first-choice goalkeeper, with Kelava keeping his place as the second-choice goalkeeper and Lončarić staying the club's third-choice goalkeeper until Kelava was loaned to Lokomotiva Zagreb in August 2009. As the club's third-choice goalkeeper, Lončarić made no competitive appearances for Dinamo Zagreb throughout the entire 2008–09 season.

However, following a couple bad performances by Butina in European matches, Lončarić was given a second chance as the club's first-choice goalkeeper and made his first competitive appearance in nearly two years when he appeared in Dinamo Zagreb's 6-0 win at home to Rijeka on 20 September 2009 in the Prva HNL. On 1 October 2009, exactly three years after his competitive debut for Dinamo, Lončarić made his European debut for the club in their 3–0 away win at Timişoara in the UEFA Europa League. However, he was soon forced to take another lengthy break after renewing his injury in Dinamo's Europa League match against Ajax on 22 October 2009.^[2]

His first competitive match after the injury break came on 31 July 2010 in a 2-1 defeat at home to Rijeka in the Croatian top flight, deputising for the injured Butina. On 4 August 2010, he made his debut in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, at home to Sheriff Tiraspol. After a 1–1 draw in the regular 90 minutes and the ensuing 30 minutes of extra time, the match went into a penalty shootout, where Lončarić was able to save two kicks, but Dinamo eventually lost 6–5. Dinamo Zagreb was relieved by departure of Butina, which saw Lončarić further increase his first-choice goalkeeper status.

National team

Lončarić started his international career for Croatia with a debut for the under-16 team in a friendly match against Slovenia under-16 on 5 March 2002. He made seven more appearances for the under-16 selection before debuting for the under-17 team in a friendly match against Czech Republic under-17 on 7 August 2002, aged just 15. Lončarić was very successful playing for the under-17 team, collecting a total of 17 caps throughout the 2002 and 2003. He featured in two friendly matches for the under-18 team and then with 17 years of age debuted for the under-19 team. Lončarić made a total of 13 appearances for the under-19 selection. He had a short spell with the under-20 team, playing in four friendly matches throughout the 2006 and 2007. In 2007 he made his last appearances for the Croatian youth teams, featuring in three matches for the under-21 team. Lončarić was capped a total of 47 times for the Croatian youth teams.^[3]

Career statistics

As of 30 August 2010^[2]

• Note: the Croatian Cup appearances for Dinamo Zagreb can be viewed at the official website of the club nk-dinamo.hr under the The Match section.

¹ Including the 2010 Croatian Supercup match against Hajduk Split.^[4]

Honours

As of 1 August 2010^[2]

Dinamo Zagreb

• Prva HNL: 5

2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

• Croatian Cup: 3

2007, 2008, 2009

• Croatian Supercup: 2

2006, 2010

References

External links

• Filip Lončarić at nogometni-magazin (Croatian)