Leon Benko

Leon Benko (born 11 November 1983 in Varaždin) is a Croats football (soccer) 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 FC Inter Turku.

Nuremberg

On 23 May 2006, it was announced that Benko has signed for Germany Bundesliga (football) side 1. FC Nuremberg 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 his first goal for Nuremberg on 29 November 2007 in their UEFA Cup group match against eventual winners of the competition, FC 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.

Standard Liège

On 4 August 2008, Benko moved to Belgium side Standard Liège for an undisclosed fee, signing a one-year contract with an optional extension. He made his debut for the club on 16 August 2008 in their 3-1 away win at F.C. Verbroedering Dender E.H. in the first round of the 2008-09 Belgian First Division, coming on as a late substitute.

International career

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