Ján Ďurica

Ján Ďurica was born on December 10, 1981 in Dunajská Streda, Czechoslovakia. Currently he plays for FC Lokomotiv Moscow.

Ján started his professional football career in the Slovakian DAC Dunajská Streda and kept it going in Artmedia Bratislava where from he was transferred to FC Saturn Ramenskoye. In 2007, the defender was included in the list of the 33 best football players of the Russian Premier League. Having spent two seasons with Saturn, Ďurica left for FC Lokomotiv Moscow. The deal went through in February 2009.

Ján’s start for Lokomotiv can scarcely be called a fortunate one for the footballer got a severe injury during his very first match for the new team and dropped out for 3 weeks. Hardly had Ján recuperated and started playing with the first side when he was sent off. As a result, in the first season for Lokomotiv Ďurica appeared only 10 times after which he was loaned to Hannover 96 that was on the verge of relegation to the second German division. Yet the footballers of Hannover managed to demonstrate their best qualities and didn’t let their team leave the Bundesliga, Ďurica being also directly involved in the process of saving the spot in the high-flight. That year Ján Ďurica was called up to the Slovakia national football team to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and appeared in all the four matches of the tournament.

When the term of the loan agreement expired Ďurica was to return to Lokomotiv Moscow where he already appeared in the 2011/12 season first round match against FC Dynamo Moscow. Then he featured in the starting line-up and scored a goal on the 4th minute of the game. In the fashion Ján became a first-choice centre-back of Lokomotiv and played full time in all the games of the first circle of the championship. However at the end of the season José Couceiro tended to give preference to the young Maxim Belyaev and the new manager Slaven Bilitch, that headed the team in May 2012, is inclined to keep the Slovak defender on bench too.