Leon Benko

Varteks

Benko signed his first professional contract with his youth club, NK Varteks, in July 2003, and continued to play for the club in the following three seasons under coaches Miroslav Blažević (2003–05) and Zlatko Dalić (2005–06). In his second season at Varteks he established himself as one of the club's key players, appearing in 26 matches 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 in a 4–3 victory over Inter Turku. He finished the 2005–06 season as the club's top scorer, scoring 14 goals in 27 league appearances, and was instrumental in the club's 2005–06 Croatian Cup campaign in which they reached the final before losing to Rijeka on away goals rule. His excellent performances at Varteks earned him the 2005 Hope of the Year award for Croatia's best young player.

Nürnberg

On 23 May 2006, it was announced that Benko has signed for German Bundesliga side 1. FC Nürnberg on a three-year contract with an optional one-year extension. 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. 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…

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. Benko was once again included in the roster for the friendly match against South Korea on 10 September 2013. He provided a crucial assist for Domagoj Vida who scored the first goal in 65th minute of the match. Croatia went on to win the match, being their second match and second win against South Korea side in the year of 2013 alone. His prolific goalscoring form in his club earned him another call-up, this time for the Croatia crucial 2014 World Cup play-off matches against Iceland on 15 November 2013.

Club

International

Nürnberg

DFB-Pokal: 2006–07 Standard Liège

Belgian Pro League: 2008–09 Sarajevo

Bosnian Premier League: 2014–15 Olimpija Ljubljana

Slovenian PrvaLiga: 2017–18 Slovenian Cup: 2017–18 Varaždin

2. HNL: 2018–19 Individual

Croatian Football Hope of the Year: 2005 SN Yellow Shirt Award: 2013 Football Oscar Team of the Year: 2013 HNL's Football Player of the Year: 2013 Croatian Cup top scorer: 2005–06 Croatian First League top scorer: 2012–13 Bosnian Premier League top scorer: 2015–16 Slovenian Cup top scorer: 2016–17, 2017–18 Croatian Second League top scorer: 2018–19