Ivan Kelava

Ivan Kelava
Personal information
Full name Ivan Kelava
Date of birth (1988-02-20) 20 February 1988
Place of birth Zagreb, SFR Yugoslavia
Height 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Playing position Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Granada
Number 25
Youth career
1997–2006 Dinamo Zagreb
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2013 Dinamo Zagreb 102 (0)
2009–2010 → Lokomotiva (loan) 33 (0)
2013–2015 Udinese 10 (0)
2014 → Carpi (loan) 1 (0)
2015 → Spartak Trnava (loan) 14 (0)
2015– Granada 4 (0)
National team
2004 Croatia U16 1 (0)
2004–2005 Croatia U17 15 (0)
2006–2007 Croatia U19 12 (0)
2009 Croatia U20 4 (0)
2008–2010 Croatia U21 15 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:46, 10 January 2016 (UTC).


Ivan Kelava (born 20 February 1988) is a Croatian footballer who plays for Spanish club Granada CF as a goalkeeper.

Club career

Kelava played for Dinamo Zagreb's youth teams from 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. On 4 July 2013 he joined Udinese for €1 million.

Kelava made his Serie A debut on 25 August 2013, starting in a 1–2 away loss against Lazio. After being a backup to Željko Brkić, he subsequently had loan stints at Carpi and Spartak Trnava.

On 25 August 2015 Kelava moved to Udinese's feeder club Granada CF, mainly as a replacement to Real Sociedad-bound Oier Olazábal.[2]

International career

Between 2004 and 2010 Kelava was capped over 50 times for Croatia at various youth levels. He won a total of 15 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.[3] 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 goalkeeper 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

References

  1. ↑ http://www.vecernji.hr/sport/nogomet/malm-je-bio-milimetar-cuda-ali-kelava-je-spasio-dinamo-clanak-320903
  2. ↑ "El Granada incorpora al meta croata Ivan Kelava" [Granada signs Croatian goalkeeper Ivan Kelava] (in Spanish). Marca. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  3. ↑ "Ivan Kelava" (in Croatian). Croatian Football Federation. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
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