Ivan Elez (born 9 September 1981) is a

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 retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player.

Club career

Elez was born in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

and started to play football in the mid-1990s at local club NK Omladinac Vranjic. In 1994, he was spotted by

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 ...

, and started his professional career by joining the club in March of that year. He played for Hajduk until 1999, before moving to then second-division club

NK Mosor NK Mosor, also known as HBDNK "Mosor – Sveti Jure", was a Croatian football club from Žrnovnica, settlement which is part of the city of Split on the Croatian coast. The club was founded in 1929. It existed until World War II when most of its ...

, originally starting in the reserve team. After two seasons, he was promoted to the first team. After two seasons with Mosor, he left and signed with NK Uskok, where he played for two seasons with some success. In the summer of 2005, Elez left Uskok and started to play for

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 ...

in the Croatian First Division, where he remained for two seasons, before joining

NK Zadar Nogometni klub Zadar (), commonly referred to as NK Zadar or simply Zadar, was a Croatian football club based in Zadar, a city on the Adriatic coast, best known for playing in the top flight of Croatian football for almost twenty years. Histor ...

. Elez remained at Zadar for one

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, before leaving to play with Second Division side

NK Solin NK Solin is a Croatian football club based in the town of Solin, near Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, ...

. After just half a season with Solin, Ivan returned to the first division, signing a contract with

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 ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elez, Ivan 1981 births Living people Footballers from Split, Croatia Men's association football midfielders Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen NK Mosor players NK Uskok players NK Slaven Belupo players NK Zadar players NK Solin players HNK Šibenik players NK Dugopolje players NK Šmartno 1928 players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players Slovenian Second League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Slovenia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary