Ilija Nestorovski

Two seasons, two divisions, two golden boots. Ilija Nestorovski scored 24 goals for Inter Zaprešić in the 2014–15 Croatian second tier, finishing as its top scorer and taking the club up to the 1. HNL. He then did it again a level higher: 25 goals in 2015–16, top of the scoring charts in the top flight, and the Macedonian Footballer of the Year award. Italian clubs took notice.

The move came in 2016, to Palermo, for a fee reported at between €500,000 and €600,000. When the Sicilian club ran into financial trouble he left on a free transfer in 2019 and joined Udinese.

He had started at Pobeda in his home town of Prilep, winning the Macedonian First League title in 2006–07, and spent three years in the Czech Republic with Slovácko, with loan spells at Viktoria Žižkov and Metalurg Skopje in between.

March 2021 brought the episode that followed him for some time afterwards. Nestorovski was sent home from the North Macedonia squad after a goal celebration against Liechtenstein in which he directed insults at people who had threatened his family. The following month he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in training. Surgery and roughly six months out followed.

For North Macedonia he has 52 caps and 10 goals, among them a hat-trick against Liechtenstein in 2017 and a goal against Italy in 2018 World Cup qualifying. He also played at the 2013 European Under-21 Championship.

A season at Ascoli in 2023–24, again on a free transfer, preceded his return to Croatia.