Nikola Šafarić

Nikola Šafarić
Personal information
Full name	Nikola Šafarić
Date of birth	11 March 1981 (age 43)
Place of birth	Čakovec, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Venera Sveti Juraj na Bregu
	Čakovec
Senior career*
Years	Team
1998–2007	Varteks
2007–2008	Rijeka
2008–2010	Slaven Belupo
2010–2011	Varaždin
2011–2013	Kaposvári
2013–2015	Zavrč
2015	Inter Zaprešić
2015–2016	Međimurje
2016–2017	Varaždin
2017–2018	NK Novi Marof
2018–2021	NK Obres Sveti Ilija
International career
2004–2006	Croatia
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nikola Šafarić (born 11 March 1981) is a Croatian former footballer who played as midfielder. He current works as sporting director of NK Varaždin.

Club career

Early years

In 1998, Šafarić started his football career in

league

games for Varteks and scoring several goals in the process.

Best years with Varteks

From the 2002–03 season, Nikola finally stepped up on the big scene. He became a first team regular in

team`s captain. Nikola Šafarić is also a great penalty and free kick taker and although he could play every possible position in the midfield he says he "plays best as a defensive midfielder."^[1]

Subsequent teams

In the beginning of the 2007–08 season, Nikola Šafarić was sold to

Prva HNL

.

On 31 August 2008, Šafarić signed a 2-year contract with Slaven Belupo.^[2]

He returned to the Varteks for the 2010–2011 season. Before the season started, the club lost its main sponsorship, the Varteks clothing factory, and changed its 52-year-old name to NK Varaždin. The club immediately fell into financial difficulties, and would be expelled from the top-level

Prava HNL the following season, when it stopped paying its players. Šafarić avoided this, having signed a two-year contract with Kaposvári

in 2011, but this will come to play later in Šafarić's career.

Šafarić signed a two-year contract with

Druga HNL outfit NK Inter Zaprešić.^[3]

Šafarić signed with Međimurje for the 2015–2016 season, then returned to the city of Varaždin for the 2016–17 season. His earlier club, NK Varaždin, had declared bankruptcy and folded in 2015, but Šafarić had signed with a different NK Varaždin, unassociated with the earlier team. This club had formed in 2012, as Varaždin ŠN, than changed to NK Varaždin when the bankrupt team discarded the name.