Dominik Kovačić

A championship medal from Moldova sits oddly in a Croatian centre-back's career, but Dominik Kovačić has one. He arrived at Sheriff Tiraspol in January 2018, played three matches, and finished the season as a winner of the Moldovan Super Liga.

The route there ran through Zagreb. Kovačić came up at NK Dubrava Tim Kabel until 2008, then spent five years in NK Zagreb's youth ranks before making his senior debut for the club in 2013. He stayed four seasons, long enough to be sold abroad: FC Lugano signed him in 2017, and by the turn of the year he was in Tiraspol.

NK Široki Brijeg took him in 2018 and kept him two years. NK Lokomotiva Zagreb paid €0.1 million for him in 2020 and loaned him to Vejle Boldklub for the first half of 2021. Romania came next, with FC U Craiova 1948, then two seasons at Kisvárda FC.

The 2024 move to FC Koper did not work. He signed as a free agent in July and was gone by September. NK Slaven Belupo picked him up on a free later that year.

Across those clubs he has passed 200 professional appearances, with three or four goals to show for a defender who has rarely been asked to provide them. Croatia has not capped him at senior level. The pattern of his career has been movement.