Aljaž Struna

Koper

Struna began his career in the youth ranks of Slovenian PrvaLiga side Koper. He made his first team debut on 11 April 2009, coming on as a substitute in a 0–0 draw with Maribor. Although Struna played primarily with the youth teams, he made two first team appearances in the 2008–09 season. Struna found more playing time at the beginning of the 2009–10 season, appearing in fifteen league games and twice in the Slovenian Cup. He scored his first goal for Koper on 12 December 2009 in a 4–0 win over Celje. Struna would go on loan to Slovenian Third League club Jadran Dekani for the second half of the season. Koper would go on to win the PrvaLiga. Struna returned to Koper after his brief loan. He made his first appearance of the season on 13 July 2010, making his European debut by coming on as a substitute in a UEFA Champions League qualifying match against Dinamo Zagreb. Struna established himself as a starter as the season progressed. On 2 April 2011, Struna scored his first goal of the season to help Koper defeat Maribor 3–0. He would find the net again on 6 April 2011 as Koper beat Celje. Struna made his first appearance of the 2011–12 season in a UEFA Europa League qualifying match on 30 June 2011, a 1–1 draw with Shakhter Karagandy. Koper would go on to lose 3–2 on aggregate. He scored his only goal of the season on 14 September 2011 in a 2–0 win over Olimpija Ljubljana in a Slovenian Cup match. Struna and Koper would finish fourth in the league, just missing…

Struna made his first youth international appearance with the Slovenian under-18 team, appearing in three friendlies in May 2008. He made his debut with the senior national team on 23 March 2016 in a 1–0 friendly win against Macedonia. The match was played at Bonifika Stadium, his old home stadium with FC Koper. Struna made his competitive debut for Slovenia on 8 October 2016 in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier, getting the start in a 1–0 win over Slovakia. He scored his first international goal on 6 September 2019 in a 2–0 win over Poland in a UEFA 2020 Euro qualifying match.

Club

As of 3 August 2021

International

Scores and results list Slovenia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Struna goal.

Struna was born and raised in Piran. When he moved to Palermo, Struna got a large tattoo of Piran on his back. He is a big fan of basketball, particularly Michael Jordan and fellow Slovenians Goran Dragić and Luka Dončić. Struna says that he likes basketball more than football and would stay up to 4 am watching NBA games while living in Italy. Struna's older brother Andraž Struna is also a Slovenian international footballer and was his teammate at FC Koper until 2010. Struna's nickname of "Kiki" originated because Andraž struggled to pronounce his brother's name and instead called him Kiki, which was the name of a candy he liked.