David Strelec (born 4 April 2001) is a Slovak professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for Slovan Bratislava and the Slovakia national team.

Club career

Strelec made his Fortuna Liga debut for

ŠK Slovan Bratislava ŠK Slovan Bratislava (, "Bratislava Slavs") is a professional association football, football club based in Bratislava, Slovakia, that plays in the Slovak First Football League. Founded as I. ČSŠK Bratislava in 1919, the club changed its name ...

against Zemplín Michalovce on 5 August 2018. He transferred to

Spezia Calcio Spezia Calcio is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, currently competing in the Serie B. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who ...

in the summer of 2021, signing a five-year contract with the Italian club on the last day of the

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

. On 31 January 2023, Strelec joined

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club Reggina on loan until the end of the 2022–23 season. He returned to Spezia at the end of his loan. Strelec headed back to Slovan Bratislava in the summer of 2023 on loan with an option to buy, which Slovan exercised in May 2024, signing Strelec to a four-year contract. In the first half of the 2024–25 Slovak First Football League, Strelec scored 11 times in 19 matches. On 5 November 2024, Strelec scored the opening goal in a 1-4 defeat by GNK Dinamo in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. He scored another goal in that season's competition against Spanish outfit

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. In the January 2025 transfer window, Strelec was the subject of transfer bids from British sides

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, ultimately staying in Bratislava.

International career

In March 2021, Strelec received his first call-up to Slovak senior national team by

Štefan Tarkovič Štefan Tarkovič (born 18 February 1973) is a Slovak football manager and a former player. He currently manages Kyrgyzstan. Previously, he headed the national team of Slovakia as well as various Slovak clubs such as Žilina, Tatran Prešov an ...

for three

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

fixtures against

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He made his debut on 24 March in a goalless draw against Cyprus, replacing

Ondrej Duda Ondrej Duda (; born 5 December 1994) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Hellas Verona and the Slovakia national team. Club career Duda began his football career at his hometown club MFK Snina. He later mov ...

after 83 minutes. He scored his first international goal against Malta, scoring with his head to reduce Malta's lead to 2–1, in a match which finished 2–2. In November 2024, Strelec scored the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute of a

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

match against

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

in Trnava. This was his 4th goal for Slovakia in the league phase.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Slovan Bratislava *

Slovak Cup The Slovak Cup (), currently named Slovnaft Cup due to sponsorship agreement with Slovnaft, is the only nationwide Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in Football in Slovakia, Slovak football. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Euro ...

: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual * Peter Dubovský Award: 2020 *

Slovak Super Liga The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Football in Slovakia, Slovak football league system. It was formed ...

Team of the Season:

U-21 Team of the Season:

References

External links

ŠK Slovan Bratislava official club profile

Futbalnet profile

Ligy.sk profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strelec, David 2001 births Living people Footballers from Nové Zámky Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's youth international footballers Slovakia men's under-21 international footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Slovak First Football League players Serie A players Serie B players UEFA Euro 2024 players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Spezia Calcio players AS Reggina 1914 players Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Slovak sportsmen