Ivan Graf

Born in capital city of Croatia, Zagreb, Graf started his football path in football school of local city based lower league Kustošija football club where he spent his entire youth career. With Kustošija he also kicked off his senior career in 2006–07 season which was his first senior competitive season. After debut season with Kustošija he decided to leave his domestic club on a free transfer and joined another lower league city club, neighbouring Vrapče on a two-year contract for the start of 2007–08 season. Graf spent two consecutive seasons with Vrapče and by the end of 2008–09 season with his two-year contract completed he decided not to extend his contract and stay at Vrapče. He felt as a free player it was time to move on and to change the domain of Croatian lower league football after playing it for three seasons.

Primorje Ajdovščina

Therefore, joining Slovenian club Primorje Ajdovščina the following season was seen as uncommon move due to general opinion at the time that Slovenian football was limited compared to Croatian one in almost all aspects of football such as tactics, training, style of play, finance, managing, fan base and overall status of football and was not attractive enough for Croatian football players whose financial demands were higher. However, Graf made a firm decision to join NK Primorje Ajdovščina due to initiative from Primorje head coach Vjekoslav Lokica. Croatian coach Lokica after tight relegation from Slovenian PrvaLiga in 2008–09…