Leon Benko

Leon Benko (Croatian pronunciation: [beːŋko]; born 11 November 1983) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a forward for NK Varazdin in the 1. HNL.

A product of NK Varteks youth academy, Benko had spells abroad in the German Bundesliga with 1. FC Nurnberg and in Belgium with Standard Liege and K.V. Kortrijk. He was the 2012–13 Prva HNL league's top goalscorer.

Club Career

Varteks

Benko signed his first professional contract with his youth club, NK Varteks, in July 2003, and continued to play for the club in the following three seasons under coaches Miroslav Blazevic (2003–05) and Zlatko Dalic (2005–06). In his second season at Varteks he established himself as one of the club's key players, appearing in 26 matches in the Croatian First League.

In the summer of 2005, he also performed well for Varteks in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, scoring all four goals in their 4–1 victory over Dinamo Tirana as well as a brace that included the winning goal in a 4–3 victory over Inter Turku. He finished the 2005–06 season as the club's top scorer, scoring 14 goals in 27 league appearances, and was instrumental in the club's 2005–06 Croatian Cup campaign in which they reached the final before losing to Rijeka on away goals rule. His excellent performances at Varteks earned him the 2005 Hope of the Year award for Croatia's best young player.

Nurnberg

On 23 May 2006, it was announced that Benko has signed for German Bundesliga side 1. FC Nurnberg on a three-year contract with an optional one-year extension. He made his Bundesliga debut on 12 August 2006, playing as a substitute in the last five minutes of the club's first league match of the 2006–07 season, a 3–0 away victory at VfB Stuttgart. He finished his first Bundesliga season with only seven appearances, having missed the entire second part of the season due to injury problems.

He scored his first goal for Nurnberg on 29 November 2007 in their UEFA Cup group matc

This page also has a version in other languages :  Леон Бенко (russian)