Filip Lončarić

Filip Lončarić (born 17 September 1986) is a Croatian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Filip Lončarić
Lončarić with Dinamo Zagreb in 2008
Personal information
Full name Filip Lončarić
Date of birth (1986-09-17) 17 September 1986
Place of birth Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
1994–2005 Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2005–2012 Dinamo Zagreb 41 (0)
2006 → Lokomotiva (loan) 0 (0)
2012 Gaz Metan Mediaş 3 (0)
2013–2014 Željezničar 23 (0)
2014–2015 Osijek 6 (0)
2015–2016 Zrinjski Mostar 3 (0)
2016–2018 Tromsø 16 (0)
Total 92 (0)
National team
2002 Croatia U16 8 (0)
2002-2003 Croatia U17 17 (0)
2003 Croatia U18 2 (0)
2003-2005 Croatia U19 13 (0)
2006-2007 Croatia U20 4 (0)
2007 Croatia U21 3 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Lončarić joined GNK Dinamo Zagreb in 1994,[1] aged just eight and made his breakthrough to the first-team squad for the 2005–06 season. He had a brief loan-spell at Dinamo Zagreb's feeder team NK Lokomotiva, but made no competitive appearances. With Dinamo, Lončarić won seven Prva HNL titles, five Croatian Cup titles and two Croatian Super Cups. After Dinamo, he played at CS Gaz Metan Mediaș, FK Željezničar Sarajevo, NK Osijek, HŠK Zrinjski Mostar and Tromsø IL, before retiring from football in August 2018 at the age of 31.

In the national team, Lončarić played for various youth selections from 2002 to 2007. He was capped a total of 47 times, most of which he made playing for the under-17 and under-19 teams.

Club career

Dinamo Zagreb

Lončarić has been part of Dinamo Zagreb's first team since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, but went on to spend the second part of the season on loan to Lokomotiva, who played in the Treća HNL at the time. Returning to Dinamo Zagreb for the beginning of the 2006–07 season, he made his competitive debut for the club on 1 October 2006 in their 2–2 draw away at Hajduk Split, following a couple of blunders by the first-choice goalkeeper Ivan Turina early in the season. He subsequently became the club's first-choice goalkeeper and appeared in a total of 26 domestic league matches during the season.[2]

However, following the club's signing of German goalkeeper Georg Koch in the summer of 2007, Lončarić once again found himself relegated to the bench and only appeared in two domestic league matches early in the season before sustaining an injury in a cup match in October 2007, which led to him being sidelined for most of the season and eventually losing his place as the club's second-choice goalkeeper to Ivan Kelava.[2]

Following the departure of Koch in the summer of 2008, the club decided to re-sign former Croatian international goalkeeper Tomislav Butina to serve as the new first-choice goalkeeper, with Kelava keeping his place as the second-choice goalkeeper and Lončarić staying the club's third-choice goalkeeper until Kelava was loaned to Lokomotiva Zagreb in August 2009. As the club's third-choice goalkeeper, Lončarić made no competitive appearances for Dinamo Zagreb throughout the entire 2008–09 season.

However, following a couple bad performances by Butina in European matches, Lončarić was given a second chance as the club's first-choice goalkeeper and made his first competitive appearance in nearly two years when he appeared in Dinamo Zagreb's 6–0 win at home to Rijeka on 20 September 2009 in the Prva HNL. On 1 October 2009, exactly three years after his competitive debut for Dinamo, Lončarić made his European debut for the club in their 3–0 away win at Timişoara in the UEFA Europa League. However, he was soon forced to take another lengthy break after renewing his injury in Dinamo's Europa League match against Ajax on 22 October 2009.[2]

His first competitive match after the injury break came on 31 July 2010 in a 2–1 defeat at home to Rijeka in the Croatian top flight, deputising for the injured Butina. On 4 August 2010, he made his debut in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, at home to Sheriff Tiraspol. After a 1–1 draw in the regular 90 minutes and the ensuing 30 minutes of extra time, the match went into a penalty shootout, where Lončarić was able to save two kicks, but Dinamo eventually lost 6–5. Dinamo Zagreb was relieved by departure of Butina, which saw Lončarić further increase his first-choice goalkeeper status. However, Lončarić was again injured in a league match at Hajduk Split on 11 September 2010, his 6th appearance in the competition during the 2010–11 season. He subsequently did not appear in a competitive match for almost a year. He made three appearances in the league during the first half of the 2011–12 season, his final season with Dinamo Zagreb.

Tromsø

In January 2016, Lončarić signed a season-long contract with Norwegian club Tromsø IL.[3] Initially the club's second-choice goalkeeper, he made his league debut on 9 July 2016 in a 2–2 draw at home to Haugesund.[4] He kept his place in the starting line-up for the remainder of the season, making a total of 16 appearances in the top flight. On 7 August 2018 at the age of 31 Lončarić decide to retire from football after a new knee injury.[5]

International career

Lončarić started his international career for Croatia with a debut for the under-16 team in a friendly match against the under-16 team of Slovenia on 5 March 2002. He made seven more appearances for the under-16 selection before debuting for the under-17 team in a friendly match against Czech Republic on 7 August 2002, aged just 15.

Lončarić was very successful playing for the under-17 team, collecting a total of 17 caps throughout 2002 and 2003. He featured in two friendly matches for the under-18 team and then with 17 years of age debuted for the under-19 team. Lončarić made a total of 13 appearances for the under-19 selection. He had a short spell with the under-20 team, playing in four friendly matches throughout 2006 and 2007.

In 2007, he made his last appearances for the Croatian youth teams, featuring in three matches for the under-21 team. Lončarić was capped a total of 47 times for the Croatian youth teams.[6]

Career statistics

Club
  • Note: the Croatian Cup appearances for Dinamo Zagreb can be viewed at the official website of the club nk-dinamo.hr under the section The Match.
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League League Cup Continental Total
AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Dinamo Zagreb 2005–06 1. HNL 00000000
2006–07 2607000330
2007–08 20100030
2008–09 00000000
2009–10[7] 40102070
2010–11[7] 6000301010
2011–12[7] 30000030
Total 4109050550
Gaz Metan Mediaș 2012–13[7] Liga I 3000–30
Željezničar 2013–14[7] Bosnian Premier League 2302000250
Osijek 2014–15[7] 1. HNL 6010–70
Zrinjski Mostar 2015–16[7] Bosnian Premier League 30000030
Tromsø 2016[7] Eliteserien 16040–200
2017[7] 0000–00
2018[7] 0000–00
Total 1604000200
Career total 920160501130

1 Including the 2010 Croatian Supercup match against Hajduk Split.[8]

Honours

Club

Dinamo Zagreb[7]

References
  1. "Filip Lončarić" (in Croatian). Dinamo Zagreb. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  2. "Lončarić Filip". Nogometni Magazin. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  3. "Loncaric har signert". til.no. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 26 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  4. "Tromsø vs. Haugesund - 9 July 2016 - Soccerway"
  5. "Korsbåndet røk igjen: – Karrieren min er over". aftenposten.no. 7 August 2018.
  6. "Statistike - Nastupi: Filip Lončarić" (in Croatian). Croatian Football Federation. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  7. "Croatia - F. Lončarić - Profile with news, career statistics and history - Soccerway". us.soccerway.com. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  8. "Bišćan presudio Hajduku" (in Croatian). Sportnet.hr. 17 July 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
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