Mateo Drežnjak (born March 8, 1999) 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 professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for Budućnost of the

Prva A Liga The Prva A liga, for sponsorships reasons named the Erste Liga, is the top-tier professional basketball league in Montenegro. It is the highest basketball division organized by the Basketball Association of Montenegro (KSCG). It was established in ...

and the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the top-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedoni ...

. Standing at 1.95 m, he plays at the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

position.

Professional career

Drežnjak started his professional career in Široki. At the age of 20 he was one of the leaders of the team playing in the Bosnian League and the

ABA League Second Division The ABA League Second Division, also ABA League 2, is the 2nd-tier men's basketball division of the ABA League system. It is run by the ABA League JTD. It is a regional competition between men's professional clubs from six countries: Bosnia and ...

. In June 2020, Drežnjak moved to

Cibona Košarkaški klub Cibona, commonly referred to as Cibona Zagreb or simply Cibona, is a men's professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association, and compete ...

of the Croatian League and the

, signing a four-year contract. On 7 July 2022, Drežnjak signed a one-year deal with SC Derby of the

and the

National team career

Drežnjak played for the

Croatian national basketball team The Croatia men's national basketball team () represents Croatia in international basketball matches. The team is controlled by the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS). The biggest success Croatia has achieved was at the 1992 Barcelona Olymp ...

youth selections. He was part of the teams that were ninth at the

2015 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2015 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 29th edition of the European Under-16 Basketball Championship. 16 teams participated in the competition, held in Kaunas, Lithuania in two venues ( Arvydas Sabonis Basketball Centre and the legenda ...

and won the gold medal at the

2017 FIBA U18 European Championship Division B The 2017 FIBA U18 European Championship Division B was the 13th edition of Division B of the FIBA U18 European basketball championship. It was played in Tallinn, Estonia, from 28 July to 6 August 2017. 24 teams participated in the competition. Cr ...

. Drežnjak was part for the Croatia national B team at the

2019 NBA Summer League The 2019 NBA Summer League was held at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It began on July 1 and ended on July 15. All 30 teams and two national teams, China and Cr ...

and 2019

FIBA Stanković Continental Champions' Cup The FIBA Stanković Continental Champions’ Cup, also known as FIBA Borislav Stanković World Cup and FIBA Mini Basketball World Cup, is an international tournament of basketball for men's national teams. It is held annually by the Interna ...

. Drežnjak debuted for the Croatian A team at the

EuroBasket 2022 qualification The EuroBasket 2022 qualification was a basketball competition that was played from November 2017 to February 2021, to determine the 20 FIBA Europe nations who would join the automatically qualified co-hosts Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, and G ...

. In the first two games played against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in February 2020, he was the top scorer of the team. In February 2020, FIBA named Drežnjak one of the 10 most promising European talents.

Personal life

Drežnjak trained

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

for six years then turned to basketball following his brother older brother

Dario Dario is a masculine given name, etymologically related to Darius. Given name * Dario Allevi (born 1965), Italian politician *Dario Argento (born 1940), Italian film director * Dario Badinelli (born 1946), Italian triple jumper * Dario Bellezza ...

. Dario (born 1998) is also a professional basketball player and has played for the

Bosnia and herzegovina national basketball team The Bosnia and Herzegovina men's national basketball team (Bosnian language, Bosnian: ''Košarkaška reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovine'' / Кошаркашка репрезентација Босне и Херцеговине) represents Bosnia ...

youth selections and the Croatia national B team. Dario and Mateo had played together for Široki.

References

External links

Profile
at aba-liga.com

at fiba.com
Profile
at realgm.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Drežnjak, Mateo 1999 births Living people Shooting guards Croatian men's basketball players ABA League players KK Cibona players HKK Široki players Basketball players from Mostar 21st-century Croatian sportsmen