Jon Gorenc Stankovič

Sturm Graz's captain arrived in Austria as damaged goods. Jon Gorenc Stanković had spent four years at Huddersfield Town, but a serious knee injury picked up on international duty with Slovenia in March 2017 wiped out roughly fourteen months of his career, costing him the rest of that season, the whole of the next, and the start of the one after. He managed only 37 league appearances across his entire spell at the English club, and when his contract ran out in June 2020 he left as a free agent, signing a three-year deal with Sturm Graz.

The move remade his career. At Sturm he became a pivotal figure in midfield, wearing the captain's armband as the club won three successive Austrian Bundesliga titles, in 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25, adding the Austrian Cup in the first two of those campaigns. His performances earned him a place in the Austrian Bundesliga's Team of the Season.

Slovenia had first capped him in October 2020, and by November 2025 he had reached 33 appearances for the national side, with a single goal, scored in a friendly against Gibraltar in June 2021. He was part of the Slovenian squad at Euro 2024, coming off the bench in all four matches as the side reached the last 16 for the first time in the country's history.

Stanković's route to the top began at NK Domžale, where he made his senior debut in 2013, before a move to Borussia Dortmund took him into their reserve side in the German lower leagues. Huddersfield paid around €600,000 to sign him from Dortmund in July 2016.