NK Maribor Players
NK Maribor is an association football club from Maribor, Slovenia. The club was founded in 1960 and joined the Football Association of Yugoslavia the same year. It remained a member until Slovenia gained its independence in 1991, when the club joined the Football Association of Slovenia. Maribor are one of only three Slovenian teams who participated in the Yugoslav highest division, the Yugoslav First League, between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Apart from winning the Yugoslav second division once and the third division five times, they had no success during the Yugoslav period; the closest they came to winning a major trophy was in the 1967–68 season, when they reached the semi-finals of the Yugoslav Cup. Since 1991, Maribor have competed in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the highest level of football in the country. They were one of that league's founding members, and are one of only three clubs never to have been relegated from the top division. Maribor are the most successful club in the country, having won eleven PrvaLiga titles, eight Slovenian Cups and two Slovenian Supercups.
Aside from winning the Slovenian title as Maribor's manager, Matjaž Kek won several championships with the club as a player. Tomislav Prosen joined the club two years after its foundation and went on to become the all-time appearance record holder, with 377 games in 16 seasons. The leading all-time goalscorer is Branko Horjak, who represented Maribor for nine successive seasons during the 1970s; he scored 117 goals in 268 matches. Aleš Križan holds the club record for most appearances in the Slovenian top division, with 240. The record for most goals in the Slovenian top division is held jointly by Ante Šimundža and Kliton Bozgo, who each scored 78 goals. Among Maribor's current players, the team's captain, Marcos Tavares, has the most appearances and has scored the most goals. Tavares also holds the club record for most goals scored in Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions, with 14. Aleš Mertelj holds the record for the most appearances in UEFA competitions, with 36.
Since NK Maribor was founded in 1960, more than 500 players have made a competitive first-team appearance for the club. All players who have featured in 100 or more such matches are listed below. Ten of the club's current players – Marcos Tavares, Dejan Mezga, Marko Pridigar, Aleš Mertelj, Aleš Mejač, Goran Cvijanović, Aleksander Rajčević, Robert Berić, Željko Filipović and Mitja Viler – have made at least 100 competitive appearances. The list also includes all current or former Maribor players who have been capped for their respective national teams.
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Famous quotes containing the word players:
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)