[1] Knavs was born in Maribor and started his professional career playing at the club Olimpija from the Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana in 1993.
He became a regular in the Slovenian national team already during the same year and subsequently appeared in ten out of possible twelve matches in the qualifying session for the Euro 2000.
The Slovenian team surprisingly qualified for the finals after beating Ukraine 3–2 on aggregate in the play-offs.
The Slovenian team did not manage to qualify for the finals after being defeated 2–1 on aggregate by Croatia in the play-offs.
He also appeared in seven out of possible ten matches in the qualifying session for the 2006 World Cup, where the Slovenian team finished only fourth in their group, behind Italy, Norway and Scotland.
He made his international comeback in August 2006 after ten months of absence from the national team, playing all 90 minutes in Slovenia's friendly match against Israel.