Benedicic, Zan

2014-Current (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Midfield

Born: Kranj, Slovenia: 03-10-1995

Debut: v Accrington Stanley (a): substitute: 12-08-2014

Height & Weight: 6ft 1ins 12st 2lb

After starting his career in his Slovenian home town with Triglav Kranj, Benedicic was signed by the Italian giants AC Milan in 2011, when not yet sixteen. He passed through the Junior teams at the San Siro and was twice capped by the Slovenian Under-seventeen side for whom he netted once, in his first season of 2011-12. In the 2012-13 season he had progressed to playing five times as a substitute for the Milan Primavera B and also twice came off the bench in the Primavera play-offs and had played two full games and come on as a seventy-eighth minute substitute in a third game for the Slovenian under-eighteen side, making his debut in a 1-0 win in Greece on 5th January 2013 and following that with a substitute appearance in a 1-1 draw in Latvia two days later and a full game in a 0-0 draw in Rusia two days later. On 18th September 2013 he was called up into the first team squad for the European Cup tie with Celtic and made the bench as an unused substitute. He also started four games in the UEFA Youth competition in the 2013-14 season for AC Milan. On the home front he consolidated his place in the Primavera B team scoring three goals in seventeen starts and one game from the bench, with another game as an unused substitute and made one start and came on once as a substitute in the Primavera Coppa Italia without scoring. He also scored three goals from four starts in the Youth Cup, while on the international scene he gained nine caps at Under-twenty -one level of which seven came in the UEFA Euro Under-Twenty-One qualifiers. He was a sixty-second minute substitute for Urban Zibert on 6th September 2013 in a 1-2 defeat at Arena Khimki, in Russia, this was followed by a full game four days later at the Mestni Stadion, Ptujin, in a 2-2 home draw with Denmark. On 15th November he came on at half-time for Urban Zibert in a 0-1 home defeat by Russia at Bonifika, and four days later he started in a 5-1 away win at Stadion Beroe in Bulgaria in which he scored his first goal, with a right foot shot to increase the lead to 3-1 in the sixty- fourth minute before being substituted by Miha Zajc in the seventy-ninth minute. His next cap was in a friendly with Croatia, once more at Bonifika, on 5th March 2013 which was won by the home side by 2-1 as he came on as a substitute for Blaz Vrhovec on the hour. The next two caps came early in September 2014, when on 3rd he started in a 5-0 home win over Andorra at the Mestni Stadion, Ajdovscini, before being replaced by Nik Kupan after sixty-one minutes and five days later he again started in a 7-1 away win at the Rakvere Linnastaadion in Estonia when he was replaced by the same player after sixty-nine minutes. He was part of the AC Milan squad that went on a pre-season tour of the USA, but returned home and on 5th August 2014 he became Leeds United's sixth signing of the summer pre-season when he signed a one year loan with the club. There was an option to sign permanently should the parties so wish. Still only eighteen he set his thoughts on becoming a member of the Leeds first team. He was included in the squad for the first game of the season, being an unused substitute in the team that lost 0-2 at Millwall on 9th August 2014. He made his debut three days later when he came on as a sixty-sixth minute substitute for Lewis Cook in the 2-1 home win over Accrington Stanley in the League Cup. On 27th August 2014 he was an unused substitute as Leeds were beaten 2-1 at Valley Parade by Bradford City and so eliminated from the League Cup. Three days later he made his League debut when he came on as a seventy-eighth minute substitute for Casper Sloth in the 1-0 home win over Bolton Wanderers. He then went on International duty with the Slovenian Under-Twenty-one side and did not feature in the first team squad after that game. He had been under a cloud when signed as he was know to have knee trouble and this once more was the case and it was decided that surgery was needed. This wiped out the rest of his season. His loan period ran out at the end of June 2015 and he duly returned to A.C. Milan. But he did manage to play his final two Under-Twenty-One games for Slovenia. The first, a friendly won 7-6 on penalties, at Valeriy Lobanovsky Stadion, as they beat Ukraine on 3rd June 2015, with Benedicic playing a full game, and then five days later in a UEFA European Under -Twenty-One qualifying Group 2 home game at the Mestni Stadion, Ajdovscini, he came on as a half-time replacement for Andraz Sporar in a 4-0 win over Andorra.