Jan Koprivec (born 15 July 1988) is a Slovenian

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Koprivec started his career at

Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...

. In summer 2007, Koprivec joined

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

, and played two matches in the

2007–08 Coppa Italia The 2007–08 Coppa Italia was the 61st edition of the national domestic tournament. Fixtures were announced at 16:00 CET, July 25, 2007. The tournament began on August 14, 2007, and ended on May 24, 2008, with a single-match final played at the S ...

, both of which Cagliari won; however, he did not make any appearances in the league. In July 2008, Koprivec moved to

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

, and immediately joined them in pre-season training. He made his league debut for Udinese on 22 March 2009 against

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. On 17 August 2009, Koprivec was loaned out to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

side

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

. He made his debut four days later, in a 1–1 draw with Ascoli. During the season, he played only eleven games with the club from

Salento Salento (; Salentino dialect, Salentino: ''Salentu''; Griko language, Salento Griko: ) is a Cultural area, cultural, List of historical states of Italy, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apuli ...

due to an injury that hampered his settling into the first team. He returned to Udinese at the end of the season, and was then included into the first team as a second-choice goalkeeper behind fellow Slovenian

Samir Handanović Samir Handanović (born 14 July 1984) is a Slovenian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Since August 2024, he is the head coach of Inter Milan's Inter Milan Youth Se ...

. On 15 July 2015,

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

announced that Koprivec signed a 2+1 year contract with the Cypriot club. In May 2017 it was announced that Koprivec would leave the club at the end of the season. On 10 September 2019, Koprivec signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

on a one-year contract. He was released by the club at the end of his contract. In August 2020, Koprivec returned to Slovenia after 13 years and signed with Tabor Sežana of the

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

International career

Koprivec got his first call up to the

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

senior side for the team's

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

qualifiers against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in October 2016. He made his debut for the national team in a November 2016

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

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, which was also his only international appearance for Slovenia.

References

External links

Jan Koprivec
at NZS
Career profile
at Gazzetta.it * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koprivec, Jan 1988 births Living people Footballers from Koper Men's association football goalkeepers Slovenian men's footballers 21st-century Slovenian sportsmen Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers FC Koper players Cagliari Calcio players Udinese Calcio players ASD Città di Gallipoli players SSC Bari players AC Perugia Calcio players Anorthosis Famagusta FC players Pafos FC players Kilmarnock F.C. players NK Tabor Sežana players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Cypriot First Division players Scottish Professional Football League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland