Mateo Strpić
 | |||
| Personal Information | |||
| Full name | Mateo Strpić | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 36 years and 53 days | ||
| Country |  Hrvatska | ||
| Position | Central Defender | ||
| Current team | Farmers on the storm | ||
| Youth Career | |||
| Youth team | Farmers on the storm U19 | ||
| Senior Career | |||
| Seasons (Global) | Team |  |  |
| 63-Present | Farmers on the storm | 33 | (6) |
| Appearances and goals counted for competitive matches only. | |||
Mateo Strpić is a Croatian football player playing for Farmers on the storm in Croatia. He is a Powerful Central Defender and is often played in friendlies and early cup rounds, functioning mostly as a reserve player at the team.
Youth Career
Strpić was scouted on 9/7/2016 (week 5, season 62) quite late, already as a 16-year old, by Borna Strašek for Farmers on the storm U19. As he couldn't promote at desireable 17 years and 0 days, he was not considered a top prospect and barely received training, not fullfilling his potentials. Still, he was promoted exactly 1 season after he enrolled the team, and as a triple inadequate he was deemed worthy of training in senior squad.
Senior Career
Immediately after his promotion, Strpić made his debut in Sapphire Cup 3rd round away game against Viktorovac. Farmers, who were then fighting in IV.12 (eventually finishing 2nd) played this game with reserve line-up and suffered heavy 2-6 loss. However, Strpić, playing as a left back in 4-5-1 formation, scored a goal on his debut, netting 82nd minute cross which was last goal at the game. For the remainder of his first season, he played only friendly games.
Strpić made his league debut in 1st round of season 64 in an away game against recently demoted NK Hrašće 1953. Same as in his cup debut season earlier, Strpić scored a 33rd minute goal to start a remarkable Farmers' comeback after they were losing 2-0. He was subbed out in 60th minute for Aldo Katalenić while the scorecard read 2-2. Farmers eventually won the game 3-2 to start what proved to be series winning campaign. As the team were kicked from National cup after just 2 rounds, they played in Ruby cup from its 1st round. Strpić participated in all 5 games before Farmers' were eliminated from this competition too, scoring one goal, in a 5-0 2nd round win against Grancereale. For the remainder of the season, Strpić played only friendly games.
Next season, as Farmers were for the first time in history playing in 3rd divison, Strpić expected to see even less playtime than before. He made his season debut in National Cup 2nd round game against Soko okolovo (2-0 win) and played in next round shocking exit against ORO Eagles. This meant Farmers again need to play in one of the Challenger cups from the first round, this time in Sapphire Cup. He played all the 5 games before eventual 5-6 penalties loss in 5th round against Tripice. He scored his first career brace against NK Žderonje in a 6-0 win. He made III division debut in a 5th round 0-2 loss at harlekin coming in as 86th minute substitute for injured Zoran Dobrila, before starting for the first time next week in a home game against NK Milicija (Farmers won 1-0). However, he was injured in the first half and replaced after 44 minutes, albeit he recovered within days. He played in 2 more league games, 9th round 0-2 loss at Milicija and last roun 0-0 draw at NK Jebivjetar. All in all, season 65 saw him playing in 10 competitive and 7 friendly matches.
In the season 66 he played even more of competitive football, amounting to 12 games across 3 different competitions (league, cup and Emerald cup). Nevertheless, he didn't manage to score a single goal. He was one of the most important players in successful campaign to win EHF Europa cup friendly competition, playing in all the games except final.
