Antonio Franja (born 8 June 1978) is a retired
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 ...
n 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 played as a
left winger
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...
.
Club career
Franja been through football school NK Dinamo Zagreb. As a junior he signed with NK Croatia Zagreb (Dinamo ). He later went on a loan to NK Croatia Sesvete and as a 20 year old player he won the best second division player trophy. He then moved to NK Hrv. Dragovoljac for only one season. Then he signed with NK Zagreb and in 2001/2002 season they won the championship. In the 2002/2003 season he was signed to Turkish club Bursaspor. Franja moved to Portugal in the summer of 2005 to
Vitória de Setúbal, where he remained for one season before returning to Croatia to play for
HNK Šibenik
Hrvatski nogometni klub Šibenik (), better known as HNK Šibenik or simply Šibenik (), is a Croatian professional association football, football sports club, club based in Šibenik. It competes in the Croatian Football League, SuperSport HNL, t ...
.
Franja's only first team goal came on 6 January 2006, in a
Primeira Liga
The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...
game against
C.D. Nacional.
Franja was part of the Vitória de Setúbal side who played in the
2005 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
The 2005 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira was the twenty seventh edition of the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, the annual Portuguese football season-opening match contested by the winners of the previous season's top league and cup competitions ...
, and reached the final of the
2005–06 Taça de Portugal.
For the 2007/2008 season he signed with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in South Korea and after one year he returned to Croatia where he stopped playing professional football and started playing Futsal first division for MNK Uspinjaca. He finished his career in
MNK Futsal Dinamo where he continued to work in the club.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Franja, Antonio
1978 births
Living people
Footballers from Zagreb
Men's association football wingers
Croatian men's footballers
NK Samobor players
NK Croatia Sesvete players
NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac players
NK Zagreb players
Bursaspor footballers
NK Inter Zaprešić players
Vitória F.C. players
HNK Šibenik players
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors players
Croatian Football League players
Süper Lig players
Primeira Liga players
K League 1 players
Croatian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey
Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal
Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea