Aris Limassol announces the signing of central defender Juraj Badelj.
The 22-year-old Croatian defender (born on 24 August 2003), who stands at 1.90m, joins our club from Romanian champions Universitatea Craiova and has signed a five-year contract that will keep him in Limassol until the summer of 2031.
Badelj has been with the Romanian club since January 2023. During his three-and-a-half-year spell, he won every domestic trophy in the 2025/26 season, as Universitatea Craiova lifted the Romanian League title, the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Super Cup. Last season, he made 26 appearances in all competitions, while overall he featured in 75 matches for the Romanian side, scoring one goal and providing one assist.
In the 2026/27 season, which has already begun in Romania, Badelj has made one league appearance and one appearance in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds.
He began his career in the youth academy of Hrvatski Dragovoljac in Zagreb, where he spent the period from 2017 to 2022 before earning a transfer to NK Rudeš. He remained with the Croatian club for just five months before completing a move to Romania.
At the international level, Badelj has earned two caps for Croatia's Under-21 national team in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers.
We welcome Juraj Badelj to the Aris family and wish him every success with our club.
