Miran Pavlin (born 8 October 1971) is a Slovenian

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 ...

executive and former player who played as

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He featured for clubs such as Olimpija,

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 ...

Olympiakos Nicosia Olympiakos Nicosia (, ''Olympiakos Lefkosias'') is a Cypriot football club based in Nicosia and competes in the . The club was founded in 1931, and is a founding member of the Cyprus Football Association. The club colors are black and green. ...

, APOEL,

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

and Olimpija Ljubljana. As of August 2024, Pavlin is the sporting director at

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Club career

In 2009, Pavlin joined

FC Koper Football Club Koper, commonly referred to as FC Koper or simply Koper, is a Slovenian football club based in Koper that competes in the Slovenian First League, the top flight of Slovenian football. The club was founded in 1920. They won the Sl ...

on a combined player-

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

contract. In his first season with Koper, he won 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 ...

. His second season there started poorly – after a resounding 5–1 defeat away to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualifiers, he announced his immediate retirement, only to return to the Koper team a week later for a single league match against Rudar Velenje. Soon, after another dispute with club leadership regarding player signings and departures, he left the club altogether.

International career

Pavlin made 63 appearances for the senior Slovenia national team between 1994 and 2004, scoring five goals. He was a participant at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

. During the second leg of Slovenia's Euro 2000 play-off against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, it was Pavlin's goal which secured a 1–1 draw and an aggregate victory to send Slovenia to their first major tournament. His final international was an April 2004

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 ...

away against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Personal life

Luka Pavlin, who is also a footballer, is his nephew.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pavlin goal.''

Honours

Porto *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 2000–01 Koper *

: 2009–10

References

External links

Miran Pavlin
at NZS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlin, Miran 1971 births Living people Footballers from Kranj Men's association football midfielders Slovenian men's footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (1945–2005) players Dynamo Dresden players SC Freiburg players Karlsruher SC players FC Porto players Olympiakos Nicosia players APOEL FC players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players FC Koper players Slovenian Second League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Regionalliga players 2. Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Primeira Liga players Cypriot First Division players Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus