Dejan Lovren is one of the most famous Croatian defenders of our time. He achieved considerable success during his career, reaching one of the strongest clubs in England - “Liverpool”. However, the road to success was not easy. Dejan had to constantly prove his worth and withstand competition. What kind of clubs did he play during his career? Did he play for the national team? Dejan Lovren is not a world-class player, but he is a very reliable and strong defender who copes with his tasks perfectly.
Carier start
Dejan Lovren began his career, naturally, in Croatia, where he was born in 1989. At the age of ten, he had already joined the Ilovac club football academy, where he had been studying for three years until he was noticed by scouts from another Croatian club. Dejan moved to Karlovac at thirteen, but he did not stay there either. When he was 15 years old, he was spotted in Zagreb Dynamo, the country's strongest club. Naturally, any Croatian boy dreamed of defending the colors of this club someday, and Dejan succeeded. Already in 2005, at the age of sixteen, he made his debut in an adult team, but so far the game was not based on him, so the young man was sent to rent on Inter from the city of Zapresich. Two years a young defender played in the “Inter” and played 56 matches, gaining much needed experience at that age. When at the age of 19 Dejan Lovren returned to Dynamo, he immediately got a place at the base. In the first season, he played 38 matches, winning his second championship in Croatia (the first was in 2006, when he was only a member of the team, but did not play for her). He could have arranged the third if in the winter of 2010, when half the season had passed, and Lovren played another 29 matches, the French top club Lyon would not have reached the young talent. The French paid a crazy sum for the Croatian championship in the amount of eight million euros, and Dejan played the season already in France.
Going to Lyon
The French Championship is one of the five strongest European championships, so the transition to such a club was a real leap for such a football player as Dejan Lovren. The biography of the defender was just beginning - he was only twenty years old when he became a base player in one of the largest clubs in France. There he spent three and a half years, having played 102 matches and won the French Cup in 2012. However, he was clearly aiming for the beloved championship of many England, in which he moved in 2013.
Relocation to England
The new Croatian club was Southampton, which paid Lyon ten million euros for a defender. Dejan Lovren and his wife gladly moved to the UK, which had long been dreamed of. Naturally, he immediately appeared in the starting lineup and played 31 games in a year, scoring two goals. With his game, he attracted his current club, Liverpool, who parted with 25 million euros to get a 25-year-old defender. He became the third most valuable central defender of that year, losing only to Mangal and Benatia, who moved to Manchester City and Bavaria.
Performances for Liverpool
In the two years that the defender spent in Liverpool, everyone is already used to seeing Dejan Lovren's standard goal - he always is, he is always alone. During these two seasons, the Croat played in 77 matches and continues to be one of the key players in Liverpool and the pillar of defense. In the new season, he has already played in five matches and scored his standard goal - given that this happened at the very beginning of the season, there is a possibility that he will be able to score even more.
Career Team
As for the Croatian national team, here Lovren made his debut in 2009, when he was only twenty years old. He was already announced for the 2010 World Cup qualifying game with Belarus, but remained on the bench. He got his chance in a friendly match with the Qatar national team, which ended in a 3: 2 victory for the Croats. Lovren would not have gone directly to the World Championship, since he was too young, but the Croats did not manage to qualify. Deyan did not get to Euro 2012, as he was injured, but he went to the 2014 World Cup as a base player. He spent all three matches from the whistle to the whistle, but the Croats could not go beyond the group stage. The Croats went to the European Championship in 2016, but Lovren was not included in the application due to a conflict with the head coach, so until today the last match for the national team at Lovren is a friendly game against the Israeli national team in March 2016.