Dejan Lovren

 ( 1989 Births ) 

His family eventually had to leave as they did not possess necessary documentation to reside in Germany and settled in Karlovac, Croatia, 50 kilometres southwest of the capital city of Zagreb. Lovren stated that he initially found settling in Croatia difficult.

On 10 May 2006, he made his debut for Dinamo in a Prva HNL match against NK Varteks. On 17 July 2006, Lovren was loaned to NK Inter Zaprešić for two seasons where he made 50 league appearances and scored one goal. Following his return from loan Lovren regularly featured in Dinamo's starting XI, appearing in 38 matches throughout the 2008–09 season and scoring three goals. In the 2009–10 season, he featured in all four of Dinamo's UEFA Champions League qualifiers against Pyunik Yerevan and Red Bull Salzburg, and managed to score a header against Pyunik.

Lovren's playing time increased during the 2010–11 season following the departure of two other defenders, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Mathieu Bodmer, in the summer of 2010. During the season, he gradually established himself as a first team regular starter, playing as a centre-back alongside Cris as well as being used as a right or left full-back, demonstrating himself as a versatile defender. In November 2010 Lovren was listed in the Don Balón list of the 100 best young players in the world.

On 23 January 2012, Lovren extended his contract with Lyon for two more seasons, signing with the French club until 2016. He started for Lyon in the 2012 Coupe de France Final, a 1–0 win over US Quevilly, but was substituted after 18 minutes for Bakary Koné.

At the conclusion of his first season in the Premier League, Lovren was named in Bloomberg Sports' Power 50 list, which provides statistical rankings of performances from players in Europe's top five leagues. He was the fifth-highest ranked player from the Premier League in 31st position. After much speculation regarding Lovren's future following the departures of Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert from Southampton, Liverpool Echo reported on 25 July 2014 that Southampton had agreed a fee with Liverpool for the sale of Lovren, who was set to undergo a medical at the Merseyside club after reportedly handing in a transfer request at Southampton.

On 10 August 2014 he made his debut in a friendly for Liverpool against Borussia Dortmund at Anfield, scoring the second goal in a 4–0 victory, and made his competitive debut on 17 August in the club's opening game of the Premier League season, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 win over former club Southampton at Anfield. He scored his first official goal for Liverpool on 28 October, when he headed in the game-winner from a free-kick in a fourth round League Cup 2–1 victory over Swansea City. However, following his poor performance in a Champions League defeat to FC Basel, Lovren was dropped from the first team. As the last penalty taker, Lovren put his attempt over the crossbar as Liverpool lost in a penalty shootout to Beşiktaş on 26 February 2015 as they were eliminated from the last 32 of the Europa League. The Telegraph website included Lovren in a feature about the 2014–15 Premier League's 20 worst signings which remarked on the number of his errors that resulted in opposition goals.

Lovren regained his place in the lineup for the first three games of the 2015–16 season and performed well securing three clean sheets and seven points. However, following a pair of defeats to West Ham United and rivals Manchester United in which the defence conceded six goals, Lovren again lost his place to Mamadou Sakho. On 8 November he came on as a substitute for Sakho in a 2–1 defeat to Crystal Palace at Anfield, with Sakho sustaining a knee injury that ruled him out for two months. On 13 December, in a 2–2 draw against West Bromwich Albion, Lovren was stretchered off the pitch in the 79th minute due to injury and was replaced by Divock Origi. The following 14 April, Lovren scored a stoppage-time winning goal in a 4–3 Europa League quarter-final win over Borussia Dortmund. Having endured a difficult start to his career at Liverpool, by the end of the 2015–16 season under Jürgen Klopp, Lovren was described as having transformed into a "calm and composed" leader on the pitch by Liverpool Echo.

On 28 April 2017, Lovren extended his contract with Liverpool, until 2021.

He had a rocky start to the 2017–18 season, being at fault for Harry Kane and Son Heung-min's early goals as Tottenham Hotspur defeated Liverpool 4–1 on 22 October 2017. He was substituted for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after only half an hour. On 17 December, Lovren scored his first goal of the season in a 4–0 win over AFC Bournemouth; a result which saw Liverpool become the first team in Premier League history to win four consecutive away league matches by a margin of at least three goals. After Virgil van Dijk's arrival on 1 January, he and Lovren built a steady partnership at the heart of Liverpool's defence. On 14 January 2018, Lovren captained Liverpool for the first time in a 4–3 win against Manchester City. On 13 May, Lovren scored his second goal of the season in a 4–0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion, which secured Liverpool's qualification for the Champions League next season. Lovren, as well, played a significant role in Liverpool's Champions League run, where the team reached the final, but eventually lost it to the ruling champions Real Madrid.

Lovren entered the 2018–19 season injured following that summer's World Cup. He returned to the squad for an EFL Cup match against Chelsea FC that Liverpool lost 1–2. On 26 December, he scored the opening goal in the 4–0 win over Newcastle United. During the match against Manchester City on 3 January 2019, Lovren made a crucial error that lead to Sergio Agüero's opening goal. Liverpool lost the match 2–1 and ending their unbeaten run in the Premier League. Six minutes into the FA Cup game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 7 January, Lovren got injured and substituted for Ki-Jana Hoever. He subsequently lost his spot in the starting eleven playing only two full games for the remainder of the season, as Liverpool lost the Premier League by a single point behind eventual champions Manchester City and won the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final against Tottenham Hotspur where he remained an unused substitute. He became the tenth Croatian in history to win the Champions League.

During the summer 2019, Lovren demanded a transfer since he did not want to be a substitute. The strongest interest was expressed by Serie A clubs AC Milan and Roma. He was therefore left out of the squad for 2019 UEFA Super Cup, which Liverpool won beating Chelsea on penalties. Lovren returned to the squad for an EFL Cup match against MK Dons on 25 September. He went on to solidify his spot in the starting XI following Joël Matip's injury. On 27 November, he scored the equalizer in the Champions League group stage match against Napoli, that ended as a 1–1 draw. However, on 10 December, he suffered a knee injury in a game against Red Bull Salzburg and was substituted for Joe Gomez. The injury forced him to miss the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, which Liverpool won beating Flamengo 1–0 in the final. He returned on 26 January 2020 and captained the team in an FA Cup game against Shrewsbury Town that ended as a 2–2 draw. On 25 June, Lovren became the first Croatian to win a Premier League after Liverpool finished first place in the 2019–20 Premier League.

On 20 October, in his Champions League debut for the club, he took a shot from outside of the penalty area which deflected off Ethan Horvath's back into the net, as Zenit lost 1–2 to Club Brugge. On 8 November, Lovren captained Zenit for the first time in a match against FC Krasnodar, due to Artem Dzyuba being stripped off captaincy after an explicit video depicting him masturbating leaked and went viral. In the closing minutes of the game, he won a penalty which was successfully converted by Aleksei Sutormin, as Zenit won 3–1. Ahead of Zenit's league match against PFC Sochi, played on 11 April 2021, Lovren suffered a muscle injury in training. In his absence, on 2 May, Zenit won the league title after thrashing Lokomotiv Moscow 6–1.

Lovren started the 2021–22 season by winning another Super Cup, beating Lokomotiv Moscow 3–0 on 17 July. Due to injuries, he made only 19 appearances during the first half of the season, as Zenit won the league once again.

On 2 September 2011, Lovren scored his first international goal, against Malta in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match. He was included by manager Slaven Bilić in the training camp prior to the UEFA Euro 2012 but was not selected for the final squad because of an injury. Lovren scored his second goal for Croatia on 26 March 2013 in a World Cup qualifying match against Wales at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. It was an equalizer that leveled the match after Gareth Bale had given Wales the lead from a penalty which Lovren caused. Croatia eventually won the game 1–2.

In May 2014, Lovren was named in manager Niko Kovač's provisional 30-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In the opening match of the tournament, on 12 June against the hosts Brazil in São Paulo, Lovren was judged by the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura to have fouled Fred in the 69th minute when the score was 1–1. A controversial penalty was given, which was converted by Neymar and led to Brazil's eventual 3–1 win. He was featured in the other two group stage matches as Croatia crashed out of the tournament following a 1–3 defeat to Mexico.

Lovren's deteriorating relationship with manager Ante Čačić ultimately resulted in him being left out of Croatia's squad for the UEFA Euro 2016.

In May 2018, he was named in Zlatko Dalić's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. In the final group stage match against Iceland, after Croatia had already qualified for the knockout stage, his handball in the penalty box caused a penalty that was converted successfully by Gylfi Sigurðsson for 1–1. Despite that, Croatia won the match 1–2 and topped their group. He then featured throughout the competition as Croatia reached the final where they lost to France 4–2.

On 11 September, Lovren missed Croatia's debut match in the inaugural edition of UEFA's new tournament Nations League, the team's 6–0 historical defeat to Spain, due to injury. He came back a month later for a match against England, that ended up as a goalless draw. On 15 November, he took part in Spain's 3–2 defeat. After the match, Lovren sparked controversy after calling the Spain team "a bunch of pussies" on Instagram Live and admitting that he deliberately elbowed Spain's defender Sergio Ramos, whom he had a feud in the media with prior to the match. Three days later, Croatia suffered a 1–2 defeat to England and got relegated from the League A to the League B of the next edition of the Nations League.

On 11 January 2019, UEFA banned Lovren for one international match for disrespecting the Spain national team and their flag, and the deliberate elbowing of Ramos. He could not play in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match against Azerbaijan. He scored his third international goal on 6 September in a 0–4 win over Slovakia. He was suspended for the deciding home fixture against Slovakia as well due to three yellow cards. Croatia nevertheless won the match 3–1 and secured their spot at the Euros.

In his first ever appearance at a UEFA European Championship, a 1–1 draw with the Czech Republic on 18 June 2021, Lovren elbowed Patrik Schick and caused a penalty that Schick successfully converted.

At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Lovren played all the matches except the third place play-off, which Croatia won.

On 23 February 2023, Lovren announced his retirement from international football, ending his 14-year career with the national team with 78 appearances won.