Leon Benko

Football player infobox
playername= Leon Benko


fullname = Leon Benko
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1983|11|11
cityofbirth = Varaždin
countryofbirth = SFR Yugoslavia
height = height|meters=1.82
currentclub = Standard Liège
clubnumber = 20
position = Striker
youthyears = until 2003
youthclubs =NK Varteks
years = 2003–2006
2006–2008
2008–
clubs = NK Varteks
1. FC Nuremberg
Standard Liège
caps(goals) = 68 (18)
10 0(0)
01 0(0)
nationalyears = 2006
nationalteam = Croatia
nationalcaps(goals) = 02 0(0)
pcupdate = August 16, 2008
ntupdate = August 7, 2006

Leon Benko (born 11 November 1983 in Varaždin) is a Croatian football striker.

Club career

Varteks

Benko signed his first professional contract with his youth club, NK Varteks, for the 2003-04 season and continued to play for the club in the following three seasons. In his third season at Varteks, he became one of their key players and was also the club's top goalscorer that season, scoring 14 goals in the Croatian First League.

In the summer of 2005, he also performed well for Varteks in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, scoring all four goals in their 4-1 victory over Dinamo Tirana as well as a brace that included the winning goal for Varteks in a 4-3 victory over Inter Turku. [cite web | url =http://www.weltfussball.de/spieler_profil/leon-benko/ui-cup-2005-2006/nk-varteks/3/ | title = UEFA Intertoto Cup appearances 2005/2006 | publisher = Weltfussball.de | language = German and English]

Nuremberg

On 23 May 2006, it was announced that Benko has signed for German Bundesliga side 1. FC Nuremberg on a three-year contract with an optional one-year extension. [cite web | url = http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2006,5,23,,27531.jl | title = Benko potpisao za Nürnberg | publisher = Jutarnji list | date = 2006-05-23 | language = Croatian] He made his Bundesliga debut on 12 August 2006, playing as a substitute in the last five minutes of the club's first league match of the 2006–07 season, a 3-0 away victory at VfB Stuttgart. [cite web | url = http://www.weltfussball.de/spieler_profil/leon-benko/bundesliga-2006-2007/1-fc-nuernberg/3/ | title = Bundesliga appearances 2006/2007 | publisher = Weltfussball.de | language = German and English] He finished his first Bundesliga season with only seven appearances, having missed the entire second part of the season due to injury problems.

He scored his first goal for Nuremberg on 29 November 2007 in their UEFA Cup group match against eventual winners of the competition, Zenit Saint Petersburg, securing his team a 2-2 away draw. He made a total of four appearances for Nuremberg in the 2007-08 season of the UEFA Cup. [cite web | url = http://www.weltfussball.de/spieler_profil/leon-benko/uefa-cup-2007-2008/1-fc-nuernberg/3/ | title = UEFA Cup appearances 2007/2008 | publisher = Weltfussball.de | language = German and English]

tandard Liège

On 4 August 2008, Benko moved to Belgian side Standard Liège for an undisclosed fee, signing a one-year contract with an optional extension. [cite news
title = Benko vom Club zu Standard Lüttich
url = http://de.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=736853.html?cid=rssfeed&att=index
publisher = UEFA
language = German
date = 2008-08-04
accessdate = 2008-08-18] He made his debut for the club on 16 August 2008 in their 3-1 away win at FCV Dender in the first round of the 2008-09 Jupiler League, coming on as a late substitute. [cite news
title = FCV Dender v Standard Liège : 1-3
url = http://www.standard.be/fr/n_nouvelle.php?id=10546#
publisher = Standard Liège official website
language = French
date = 2008-08-16
accessdate = 2008-08-18]

International career

Benko has been capped for the Croatian national under-21 team and he subsequently went on to make his debut for the country's A-team by appearing in both of their two matches at the 2006 Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong.

References