Simon Sluga (; born 17 March 1993) 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

for Bulgarian club Ludogorets Razgrad and the Croatia national team.

Club career

Rijeka

In the first two seasons of his professional career

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top division, HT Prva li ...

loaned Sluga to

Juventus Primavera Juventus Football Club Youth Sector ( it, Settore giovanile della Juventus Football Club) is the youth system of Italian football club Juventus. The Youth Sector is made up of various squads divided by age groups. Most of the squads train at ...

and Verona Primavera. During the 2013–14 season he was loaned to

NK Pomorac NK Pomorac 1921 is a Croatian football club based in Kostrena, a suburb of Rijeka which currently plays in Croatian third tier 3. HNL West. Kostrena is known for its maritime tradition, which is reflected in the club's name, as the word " pomo ...

in Croatia's

Druga HNL The Prva nogometna liga ( en, First football league), 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 Secon ...

where he collected 31 caps and managed 17 clean sheets. He spent the 2014–15 Prva HNL on loan to

NK Lokomotiva Nogometni klub Lokomotiva Zagreb ( en, Lokomotiva Zagreb Football Club), commonly known as Lokomotiva Zagreb or simply Lokomotiva, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. It competes in the Croatian First Football League, the ...

where he was capped on 26 occasions. He returned to Rijeka following the end of the loan and recorded his official game début on 19 July 2015 against Slaven Belupo. In August 2015, he was loaned to

Spezia Calcio Spezia Calcio is a professional football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who played for the early Crystal Palace amateur teams in London ...

in Italy's

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

Luton Town

On 19 July 2019, Sluga joined newly-promoted

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1 ...

for a club record fee of €1.5 million, signing a three-year contract. On 2 August 2019, Sluga made his first appearance for Luton in a 3–3 draw against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Ludogrets Razgrad

On 31 January 2022, Sluga joined

First Professional Football League The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

club Ludogorets Razgrad.

International career

He made his debut for

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

on 11 June 2019 in a friendly against

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, as a starter.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

HNK Rijeka *

Croatian Football Cup The Hrvatski nogometni kup ( eng, Croatian football cup), also colloquially known as Rabuzinovo sunce (), is an annually held football tournament for Croatian football clubs and is the second most important competition in Croatian football after t ...

: 2018–19 Individual * Luton Town Player of the Season:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sluga, Simon 1993 births Living people People from Poreč Association football goalkeepers Croatian footballers Croatia youth international footballers Croatia under-21 international footballers Croatia international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players HNK Rijeka players NK Pomorac 1921 players NK Lokomotiva Zagreb players Spezia Calcio players Luton Town F.C. players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players First Football League (Croatia) players Croatian Football League players English Football League players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Croatian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Croatian expatriate sportspeople in England Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria