Dejan Lovren is a well-known Croatian football player acting as a defender. He plays for the national team of Croatia and the English football club Liverpool. Silver medalist of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Biography
The future footballer was born in July 1989 on the fifth in the small Bosnian city of Zenica in a family of ethnic Croats. The beginning of the nineties was an extremely difficult time for Yugoslavia. By 1992, Yugoslavia as such did not exist anymore; regions gradually separated from it. In the spring of 1992, it was the turn of Bosnia, where a referendum was held, but because of disagreements between the Serbs and Bosnians, a conflict broke out, which grew into a real war. The Lovren family was at the center of the bloody events, and when his son was only three years old, they were forced to flee the country to Germany.
Until the age of ten, Dejan went to Munich school, studied German, and began to take his first steps in sports there. Of all the available, he liked football the most, besides in Germany it is very popular, and the structure of sports schools is very developed. From an early age, he dreamed someday to return to his native Croatia and enter the field in the colors of the national team. Parents were not opposed to Dejan's choice and took him to the local Zendling Academy.
When Yugoslavia finally collapsed, and the Bosnian conflict in fact ended, the German government had every reason to send the Croatian family home. In the late nineties, the Dejan family moved to the city of Karlovac. Then Lovren continued his favorite sport at the football academy of the same name. Despite tangible progress in sports, Lovren was very difficult to get used to a new life. This was largely due to the lack of proper knowledge of the Croatian language.
In 2004, scouts of one of the best clubs in the country Dynamo Zagreb drew attention to a promising youth. After consulting with the club management, representatives and coaches made a proposal to Karlovac to move Dejan. The guy himself was in seventh heaven.
Professional career
Just a year after moving to the academy of the country's top club, Dejan signed with Dynamo his first professional contract, designed immediately for ten years. He made his debut for the main team only in May 2006. As part of the national championship, he replaced the match against Varteks. Despite his zeal, Lovren was not able to convince the club management to identify him in the starting lineup. So that the player does not lose shape and receive regular practice, the club decided to send Dejan for rent. The football club Inter from the city of Zapresic responded to the call. The new Lovren team played in the second division of the country and the level of the player corresponded to the level of the team.
The very first season at Inter turned out to be extremely productive and successful for a young player. The club, according to the results of the season, took the first line in the table and won the second league of Croatia. This trophy was Lovren's first major achievement. The next year, Dejan also spent at Inter.
At the end of the season in 2008, a talented defender returned to Zagreb Dynamo. In the same year he made his debut at the European Cup, as part of the qualification for the Champions League. The team was able to break into the next round, but there was defeated by the Ukrainian club Shakhtar. The team continued to perform in the Europa League, but there she was disappointed, according to the results of the group stage, the Dynamo club took last place and could not get into the playoff round. Despite such a sad result, these matches were a good experience for Dejan Lovren.
Failures in the European arena were more than compensated for in the national championship. At the end of the season, Dynamo became champions of the country. In addition, they beat the principal rival “Hajduk” from Split in the Croatia Cup final and won the trophy. Dejan appeared on the field 22 times during the season and even scored one goal.
In 2010, Dejan received a proposal to move to the French club Olympic Lyon. Without thinking twice, the athlete agreed, and the new season Lovren began already in France. The agreement was designed for 4.5 years. The amount that the French laid out for a promising defender, amounted to nine million euros.
In the new club, the Croatian got used to it quickly and took a place in the starting lineup. He regularly appeared on the field and laid out completely in every match. For three years he went on the field more than seventy times. During this time, he won only the French Cup in 2012. At some point, Dejan realized that for further growth it was necessary to look for more powerful challenges and decided to leave Olimpik.
In the summer of 2013, he "packed his bags" and went to England, where he was waiting for a new contract with the football club Southampton. The British paid ten million euros for the Croatian defender. As part of a strong English middle peasant, Lovren did not stay long. It only took him one year to demonstrate his talents, which attracted the attention of the top teams of the league. The very next year, the Croat moved to the camp of the famous football club Liverpool from the city of the same name. As part of the “scouts”, Dejan Lovren won the most prestigious trophy of European football - the Champions League Cup in 2019.
National team
For the first time in the colors of the Croatian national team, Lovren appeared on the field in 2009. Since then, he has rarely been called up. In 2018, he and his teammates performed a small miracle. Quite a mediocre national team of Croatia with great difficulty, but still got to the final stage of the World Cup, which was held in Russia. In the final of the tournament, the forces of the Croatian team dried up and they lost the championship to the French team.
