Ivan Kelava
 Kelava with Lokomotiva in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ivan Kelava | ||
| Date of birth | 20 February 1988 | ||
| Place of birth | Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia | ||
| Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Udinese | ||
| Number | 30 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1997–2006 | Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2006–2013 | Dinamo Zagreb | 101 | (0) |
| 2009–2010 | → Lokomotiva (loan) | 33 | (0) |
| 2013– | Udinese | 8 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 2004–2005 | Croatia U17 | 15 | (0) |
| 2006–2007 | Croatia U19 | 12 | (0) |
| 2009 | Croatia U20 | 4 | (0) |
| 2008–2010 | Croatia U21 | 15 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 07:54, 22 October 2013 (UTC) | |||
Ivan Kelava (pronounced [ǐv̞an kělaʋa]; born 20 February 1988) is a Croatian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A side Udinese in Italy.
Club career
Kelava has been playing for Dinamo Zagreb's youth teams since 1997, being promoted to the club's senior squad in the summer of 2006. He started his first–team career as the club's fourth–choice goalkeeper, behind Filip Lončarić, Ivan Turina and Tomislav Vranjić, and did not appear in any competitive matches during the 2006–07 season. However, following the departures of Turina and Vranjić in the summer of 2007, he became third–choice goalkeeper for the 2007–08 season, behind the incoming Georg Koch and Lončarić.
Kelava debuted for Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian Cup in September 2007 and went on to make another cup appearance in October 2007, before eventually making his Croatian First League debut in a 2–1 away victory against NK Zadar on 27 October 2007, as both Koch and Lončarić were sidelined because of injuries. By the end of the season he managed to establish himself as the club's second–choice goalkeeper, making a total of 7 league appearances. He remained the club's second–choice goalkeeper following the departure of Koch and the signing of Tomislav Butina in the summer of 2008. On 2 October 2008, he made his European debut for Dinamo Zagreb, replacing the injured Butina in the opening minutes of the second leg of their UEFA Cup first round fixture against Sparta Prague. He also went on to appear in Dinamo's UEFA Cup group matches against NEC Nijmegen and Tottenham Hotspur.
In August 2009 Kelava was loaned to Dinamo's farm team Lokomotiva, where he established himself as their first–choice goalkeeper and made a total of 33 league appearances before returning to Dinamo a year later to play understudy to Filip Lončarić. On 11 September 2010, he made his first appearance for Dinamo since returning from the loan, coming on as a substitute for the injured Lončarić in a league match at Hajduk Split. Five days later, he kept a clean sheet in a 2–0 home win against Villarreal in the club's opening UEFA Europa League group match of the season, under coach Vahid Halilhodžić. He later also kept clean sheets twice against Club Brugge and against Hajduk Split in the Croatian league.
Kelava was the first choice goalkeeper for Dinamo Zagreb in the 2011–12 season as well, becoming a hero among Dinamo fans after making a number of crucial saves in the return leg of the Champions League play-off against Malmö FF which saw Dinamo through.[1] He later almost kept a clean sheet in the home match against Real Madrid (0-1), denying Ronaldo and Özil from close range.
In season 2012/13, Kelava broke his own record for keeping the sheet clean in domestic league with conceding no goals for 951 minutes.
Udinese
On 4 July 2013, Kelava joined Udinese for €1 milion. Initially, Kelava was about to join Granada, Udinese's feeder club. But after Željko Brkić suffered an injury, Kelava was sent to Italy instead Spain.
National team
Between 2004 and 2010 Kelava was capped over 50 times for Croatia at various youth levels. He won a total of 17 international caps for the Croatian national under-21 football team since making his debut against Chile U20 in a friendly played in Kuala Lumpur on 20 May 2008.[2] He went on to establish himself as the team's first-choice goalkeeper, making a number of competitive appearances for the team over the following two years.
Kelava was then called up by Slaven Bilić's 23-man Croatia squad for the UEFA Euro 2012, but failed to make a single appearance in the tournament. Bilić was succeeded by Igor Štimac in July 2012, who also called up Kelava as an unused third choice goalkeepeer behind Stipe Pletikosa and Danijel Subašić for FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifiers, most recently in September 2012 for matches against Belgium and Macedonia.
Honours
- Dinamo Zagreb
- Croatian First League (5): 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13
- Croatian Cup (4): 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12
References
 |
- ^ http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/malm-je-bio-milimetar-cuda-ali-kelava-je-spasio-dinamo-clanak-320903
- ^ "Ivan Kelava" (in Croatian). Croatian Football Federation. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
External links
 | ||