Dominik Greif is a Slovak international goalkeeper who joined Olympique Lyonnais in August 2025. He was signed from Spanish club Real Mallorca for a fee of €4 million, which could rise as high as €5.25 million with add-ons if certain conditions are met. Greif will compete with Rémy Descamps for the number one spot in the Lyon line-up this season.
A financial crisis forced Lyon to sell the majority of their first team players during the summer and the departures included first choice goalkeeper Lucas Perri (to Leeds United). Grief was quickly identified as a potential replacement. Tall and imposing in his box, with an impressive palmarès, he was keen to come and test himself in Ligue 1.
Lyon actually played against Mallorca in a pre-season friendly in Austria when rumours of their interest in Greif had already been circulating for a few days. Lyon won easily, putting four goals past their hapless opponents, but they didn’t get a first hand look at Greif as he wasn’t involved on the day. Nevertheless, negotiations were initiated and less than three weeks later Greif arrived in Lyon to sign a four year deal.
Rise through the ranks
Born in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, in 1997, Dominik Greif began playing youth football with ŠK Vrakuňa Bratislava based in the Vrakuňa district to the east of the city centre. He was soon scouted by local giants Slovan Bratislava and duly joined their junior ranks.
In February 2014, aged sixteen and ten months, he received a call-up for the Slovakia U-17 team and played in a friendly against Sweden at La Manga in Spain. Towards the end of the following season, he began to feature on the bench for the Slovan reserve team playing in the second tier of the Slovak football pyramid, the DOXXbet liga.
Greif got his chance in the third game of the 2015-16 season when he was handed the gloves for a DOXXbet liga match away at Trnava reserves. He kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win and subsequently became the first choice ‘keeper for Slovan reserves. However, his stint in the reserves would prove to be short-lived as his progress continued apace.
First team debut
Dominik Greif’s first taste of first team action came in the early rounds of the Slovak Cup, known as the Slovnaft Cup due to a sponsorship agreement with an oil refining company. He kept goal in wins against FC Nitra and Pohronie in autumn 2015 before the senior goalkeeper, Jan Mucha, took over for the subsequent rounds. Slovan made it all the way to the final, where they lost 3-1 to AS Trencin with Grief on the bench,
Towards the end of that 2015-16 campaign, Grief became a regular on the bench for the first team and he made his Fortuna Liga (top division) debut in the penultimate game of the season, a 1-1 draw at Michalovce. He kept his place the following weekend for the 2-2 draw with Podbrezova that brought down the curtain on the Fortuna Liga season with Slovan finishing in second place to qualify for the Europa League.
Decisive at both ends of the pitch
At the same time as he was gradually working his way into the first team reckoning at Slovan, Dominik Greif moved up to the Slovak U-19 squad that was attempting to qualify for the U19 Euros. His debut at that level was nothing short of sensational. It came on the 12th of November 2015 against Russia at the Slava Metreveli Central Stadium in Sochi.
The Russians were leading 1-0 deep into injury time when Slovakia won a corner and Greif went up to see if his height could cause any problems in the opposing box. He jumped to meet the cross, but didn’t connect. However, his Russian counterpart flapped at it and the ball fell near the opportunistic Greif, who instinctively back-heeled it into the net. His last gasp equaliser salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Slovaks and made it an unforgettable debut. There’s some very grainy footage of it set to a jaunty tune on YouTube.
He went on to play three more times for the Slovakia U-19 side that season, but unsurprisingly couldn’t repeat his goalscoring heroics.
Kings of the cup
The 2016-17 season saw the nineteen-year-old Greif divide his time fairly equally between the reserves and the first team at Slovan. He made 14 appearances for the reserves and 9 for the first team. It was another second place finish for Slovan in the Fortuna Liga, but they went one better than the previous season in the Slovnaft Cup, beating second division Skalica 3-0 in the final. This time Grief was part of the action, playing the full ninety minutes as Mucha was injured. The clean sheet was the cherry on the cake as Slovan lifted the cup for the first time since 2013 and it represents the first major honour of Greif’s career.
There were no more spells in the reserves during the 2017-18 season as Greif was now very much part of the first team squad. He began the season as number one and played every Fortuna Liga game of the regular season bar the last three when he was relegated to the bench. He remained side-lined for the championship play-off group as Michal Sulla took over goalkeeping duties for Slovan, and he also missed out on the cup final where they retained their they trophy with a 3-1 win against Ruzomberok.
Full international
The 2018-19 season could be said to be the campaign where Dominik Greif’s career really took off. He regained the number one slot from Sulla in the second Fortuna Liga game of the season and never looked back. Greif kept ten clean sheets in 29 appearances as Slovan stormed to the title by a massive margin of seventeen points. It was their ninth Slovak title and first since 2014.
Greif was named in the Fortuna Liga Best XI for 2018-19 and his performances were also rewarded with further international recognition. A call up to the U-21 squad came in September 2018 and he made his debut for them in a 3-0 win against Italy U21 at the MOL Aréna. That was followed by a call up to the full international team in June 2019 under coach Pavel Hapal. His debut came as a half-time substitute in a 5-1 friendly win against Jordan at the Anton Malatinský Stadium in Trnava.
Dominik Greif’s second cap and first start for the national team came four months later, in October 2019. He played the full ninety minutes of a friendly against Paraguay at the Tehelné pole in Bratislava and was not beaten until the 85th minute of the 1-1 draw.
Double double delight
Domestically the 2019-20 season was a walk in the park for Slovan. They again won the Fortuna Liga by a seventeen point margin and completed a double with a cup final victory against Ruzomberok. The goalkeepers were rotated for the cup fixtures, so Greif sat on the bench while Sulla deputised in the final. When it came to the post-season awards, Greif swept the board, winning the overall Fortuna Liga Player of the Year trophy. He also picked up the Goalkeeper of the Year award and of course made it into the team of the season.
In European competition, Slovan came through eight qualifying matches to reach the group stage of the UEFA Europa League where they faced Besiktas, SC Braga and Wolverhampton Wanderers. They beat Besiktas 4-2 at home in the opening game, with Greif getting an assist for the first goal, and they got a creditable draw at Braga in the second game. However, they didn’t pick up any further points and were eliminated.
The 2020-21 season followed very much in the same vein as its predecessor. Slovan retained the double, although this time they only finished six points clear at the top of the league table. Once again the ‘keepers were rotated for the cup matches, so Sulla got to play in the win over MSK Zilina in the final. Once again Greif was named best goalkeeper and made it into the team of the season.
Their European campaign was curtailed in its infancy this time around. The Covid pandemic meant that qualification matches were only played over a single leg and they went out at the first hurdle in both Champions League and Europa League qualifying. Greif did pick up his third and fourth international caps during the season, in a pair of UEFA Nations League B defeats at home to Czechia and Israel.
Move to Mallorca
In the summer of 2021, Dominik Greif submitted a transfer request, having achieved everything that he could possibly achieve in Slovak football. There had been plenty of interest in him from abroad over the years and it was newly promoted La Liga side RCD Mallorca who secured his signature for an undisclosed fee, rumoured to be around €2.5 million. Thus ended his thirteen year association with Slovan Bratislava. He left the club with a tally of 132 first team appearances, 46 clean sheets and just 135 goals conceded.
Greif joined a Mallorca squad that contained former Lyon midfield star Clement Grenier and future Athletic Club midfielder Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta. Manager Luis García had made a number of new signings in order to help the club adjust to life in the top division and Greif was expected to start as a reserve and eventually compete for the number one spot. Unfortunately his first few seasons at the club were blighted by a succession of injuries and illnesses.
Greif began the on the bench but got his chance in the seventh game of the season when Mallorca took on Osasuna at the Son Moix stadium. However, he was beaten three times in a 3-2 defeat and returned to the bench until a Copa del Rey First Round tie at Gimnastica Segoviana on the 1st of December. This one went to extra time but Mallorca won through and Greif got his first clean sheet in Spanish football in a 2-0 win.
Injury grief for Greif
That’s when his health problems kicked in and he didn’t feature in a matchday squad again from the 4th of December until the end of the season. With just the two appearances, he ended up being Mallorca’s fourth most used goalkeeper that season after Manolo Reina, Sergio Rico and Leo Román.
The following campaign wasn’t much of an improvement for Dominik Greif. He didn’t return to the matchday squad until the 9th of November 2022, and had to make do with a place on the bench once again. He now found himself understudy to Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Rajković, a summer signing from Stade de Reims for €4.5 million. Greif was limited to three more appearances in the Copa del Rey and a single outing in La Liga in the penultimate game of the season, a 3-0 defeat to Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
Epic Cup Run
Rajković was first choice again in the 2023-24 campaign under coach Javier Aguirre. For the third season running, Greif made just a solitary appearance in the league. This time he at least managed a clean sheet in a goalless draw against Valencia at the Mestalla. He was given his chance to shine in the Copa del Rey and he grabbed it with both hands, playing in seven of their eight fixtures on their run to the final and keeping four clean sheets.
Mallorca faced Real Sociedad over two legs in the semi-finals and the tie went all the way to penalties after a 1-1 draw on aggregate. Greif saved the first penalty in the shoot-out, from Mikel Oyarzabal, to give his team an instant advantage that they never relinquished. Former Lyon midfielder Sergi Darder tucked away the winning penalty to put Mallorca into the final.
They faced Athletic Club in the final at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville and took the lead early on only for Oihan Sancet to equalise just after half time. The match remained deadlocked through extra time and another shoot-out ensued. This time Greif couldn’t produce any saves and two of his team mates failed with their kicks, meaning that he had to settle for a runners-up medal.
Taking his chance
Happily for Dominik Greif, Predrag Rajković was sold to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia for €11 million in summer 2024, meaning that the Slovak could finally inherit the number one jersey. He enjoyed a fine season as Mallorca’s first choice goalkeeper, making 31 appearances in La Liga and keeping seven clean sheets with 34 goals conceded as they finished 10th in the table under new coach Jagoba Arrasate.
Greif even received a long overdue recall to the Slovakia squad in November 2024 and won his fifth cap in a UEFA Nations League C match against Estonia. He kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win at the Anton Malatinský Stadium. It brought to an end a wait of over four years since he picked up his fourth cap in October 2020.
Destination France
With only a year left on his Mallorca contract in summer 2025, it was time for Greif to make another decision about his future. That’s when Lyon came calling and he made the move to the Rhône. He left Mallorca with a paltry 46 appearances during his four seasons in the Balearics, but 15 of them resulted in clean sheets and he only had to pick the ball out of his net on 48 occasions.
Greif profited from an injury to Rémy Descamps to make his Lyon debut in the fifth game of the season and he started as he means to go on, with a clean sheet in a 1-0 win against Angers at the Groupama Stadium. He made a couple of impressive saves in injury time to secure the victory. He followed that up with another clean sheet away at Utrecht in the Europa League a few days later in another 1-0 win. Now aged 28 and approaching his peak years, he looks to have a bright future ahead of him if he can steer clear of the injuries and illnesses that have dogged him in recent seasons.