Ivan Santini (; born 21 May 1989) 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 forward for croatia club

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 ...

Club career

Ivan Santini, born in

Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...

, played for his hometown side's youth team, until the summer of 2006, when he moved to Inter Zaprešić where he signed his first professional contract and made four first team appearances, scoring his first professional goal in the process. The next season, he moved to Red Bull Salzburg where he spent the duration of the year as a youth player. He made his debut on the professional league level in the 2. Bundesliga for FC Ingolstadt on 8 March 2009, when he came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute in a game against

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of the German football pyramid. Their current home gr ...

and scored his first goal. From 2009 to 2012, he played for

. On 31 January 2012, Santini joined

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

on a six-month loan move with a clause in which Freiburg could buy out his contract. In June 2013, he signed a contract to join

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

. On 18 June 2015, Santini moved to

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

on a four-year contract, for a fee of €2 million. 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 ...

of the Belgian Cup in 2016, Santini scored a goal in the 88th minute of the match to secure a dramatic 2–1 win over

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

. On 3 August 2016, Santini moved to

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

on a three-year contract, for a fee estimated over €2 million. In January 2017, he became the second Croatian player after

Dado Pršo Miladin "Dado" Pršo (born 5 November 1974) is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Pršo played for seven different teams and made over 300 league appearances as a professional. He was included in the Monaco tea ...

to score at least ten goals in

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 ...

Anderlecht

On 3 July 2018, he moved to

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

on a three-year contract for €3 million fee. He debuted on 13 July 2018 in a friendly match against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

and scored two goals. In his official debut, on 28 July 2018, he scored a hat-trick against his former club

. On 5 August 2018, he scored his second hat-trick of the season against Oostende. On 12 August 2018, he scored the second goal in a 2–1 win against

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

. He finished the 2018–19 season as the club's top scorer with 16 league goals.

Jiangsu Suning

On 29 July 2019, Santini joined

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club Jiangsu Suning, becoming their fifth and final allotted foreign born player for the season. On 24 October 2020, Santini's ninth minute strike against Chongqing Lifan secured Jiangsu Suning a place in the semi-finals of the 2020 Chinese Super League play-offs against 2018 title winners Shanghai SIPG. Santini was a substitute in the second-leg of the CSL final against Guangzhou Evergrande on 12 November, coming on in the 80th minute for goalscorer Éder. The club held on to a 2–1 win which confirmed Jiangsu Suning as league champions for the first time in their history.

NK Osijek

On 13 February 2021, Santini returned to Croatia to sign with

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 ...

side

NK Osijek Nogometni klub Osijek (), commonly referred to as NK Osijek (), is a Croatian professional association football, football sports club, club from Osijek. Founded in 1947, it was the club from Slavonia with the most seasons in the Yugoslav First Le ...

. He scored the winning goal on his debut for the club against

Varaždin Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011). The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...

on 26 February.

Al-Fateh

On 10 August 2021, Santini joined Saudi Arabian club

Al-Fateh ''Al-Fateh'' (, "The Conqueror") was an online children's magazine in Arabic. It began publication in September 2002, and its 108th issue was released in mid-September 2007. The magazine featured stories, poems, riddles, and puzzles. Criticism ...

Zürich

On 29 June 2022, he joined Swiss side

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

International career

Santini made his debut for

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 ...

in a May 2017

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

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and earned a total of five caps, scoring no goals. In May 2018, he was shortlisted on Croatia's preliminary 32-man squad for the

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

in Russia, but did not make the final 23. His final international was an October 2018 friendly against

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Personal life

His brother Krševan plays as a goalkeeper. Their father is the late singer Romeo Santini.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Inter Zaprešić *

Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga (), commonly Prva NL or 1. NL, is the second tier of the football league system in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Yugoslav Second League. The 1. NL is ope ...

: 2006–07 Standard Liege *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2015–16 Jiangsu Suning *

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Individual * Prva HNL Player of the Year:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Santini, Ivan 1989 births Living people Footballers from Zadar Croatian people of Italian descent Men's association football forwards Croatian men's footballers 21st-century Croatian sportsmen Croatia men's youth international footballers Croatia men's international footballers NK Inter Zaprešić players FC Ingolstadt 04 players NK Zadar players SC Freiburg players K.V. Kortrijk players Standard Liège players Stade Malherbe Caen players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Jiangsu F.C. players NK Osijek players Al Fateh SC players FC Zürich players Croatian Football League players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Ligue 1 players Chinese Super League players Saudi Pro League players Swiss Super League players Croatian expatriate men's footballers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Croatian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Croatian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's footballers in China Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland