Timi Max Elšnik (born 29 April 1998) is a Slovenian 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 le ...

who plays as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Serbian SuperLiga club

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

and the Slovenia national team.

Club career

Derby County

Elšnik joined the Derby County academy in 2015 at the age of 17. During his first season, he initially played for the under-18 team before progressing to the under-21 squad. At the end of the 2015–16 season, he was named the club's Scholar of the Year. Shortly after signing a new three-year contract with the club in August 2016, he made his first team debut as a substitute against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

, scoring twice in Derby's penalty shoot-out win. He was released by Derby in July 2019.

Loans to Swindon Town, Mansfield Town and Northampton Town

On 31 August 2017, Elšnik signed on a season-long loan for Swindon Town along with Derby teammate Kellan Gordon. Two days later, Elšnik made his Swindon debut during their 4–1 home defeat against

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

, featuring for the entire 90 minutes. On 31 August 2018, Elšnik signed on a season-long loan for

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

. Four days later, Elšnik made his Mansfield debut during their 2–1 away win against Lincoln City in the

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, featuring for the entire 90 minutes. On 30 October 2018, Elšnik was brought back into the Mansfield side, starting the game against Crewe Alexandra. He scored two goals ensuring a 3–0 win for Mansfield. In January 2019, Mansfield activated a clause to terminate the loan spell during the winter transfer window. Shortly after his return to Derby, he was loaned to Northampton Town until the end of the season.

Olimpija Ljubljana

In January 2020, Elšnik returned to his home country and signed with Olimpija Ljubljana. In December 2020, after extending his contract with the club, president Milan Mandarić appointed him as the team captain at only 22 years of age. With Olimpija, Elšnik won the Slovenian league title in the

2022–23 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 b ...

season and the Slovenian Cup in the

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 b ...

and

seasons.

International career

Elšnik has represented Slovenia at the under-17, under-18, under-19, and under-21 levels. He was the captain of the under-21 team at the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football ch ...

. He made his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

debut on 8 October 2021 in the

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tour ...

match against

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, replacing Jasmin Kurtić late in the game. In June 2024, Elšnik was called up to the squad for UEFA Euro 2024 by Slovenian coach Matjaž Kek. He appeared as a starter in all four Slovenia matches at the tournament.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Olimpija Ljubljana * Slovenian PrvaLiga:

* Slovenian Cup:

References

External links

*
Timi Max Elšnik
at NZS {{DEFAULTSORT:Elsnik, Timi Max 1998 births Living people Footballers from Ptuj Slovenian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Slovenia men's youth international footballers Slovenia men's under-21 international footballers Slovenia men's international footballers Slovenian expatriate men's footballers Derby County F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) players Red Star Belgrade footballers English Football League players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Serbian SuperLiga players Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Expatriate men's footballers in Serbia UEFA Euro 2024 players