Marek Heinz (born 4 August 1977) is a Czech former 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 played as a striker.

Career

Early career

Heinz started his football career in his native Czech Republic, where he played for

Lázně Bohdaneč Lázně Bohdaneč (; until 1980 Bohdaneč) is a spa town in Pardubice District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,400 inhabitants. Etymology The name Bohdaneč is derived from the personal name Bohdanec (diminutive form ...

and

Sigma Olomouc SK Sigma Olomouc is a Czech professional football club based in the city of Olomouc. The club currently competes in the Czech First League, the first tier of Czech football. The club played in the first tier league for 30 years between 1984 and 2 ...

before moving to Germany in 2000.

Germany and international call-up

Heinz headed to German side

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

in 2000, the same year making his first appearance for the senior team of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. A surplus to requirement under

Kurt Jara Kurt Jara (born 14 October 1950) is an Austrian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Playing career Club career Born in Innsbruck, Jara started his professional career with local side FC Wacker Innsbruck before moving ...

midway through the 2002–03 season he joined

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

for the remainder of the campaign. Heinz could not make himself a regular at Bielefeld, watching his side slumping to relegation from the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

. Having not been signed by Bielefeld and released by Hamburg, he returned to the Czech Republic in 2003.

Return to the Czech Republic and Euro 2004

Baník Ostrava ''Baník'' is a Slovak word meaning "miner". Since the 1950s it has been part of the name of various sports clubs in Czechoslovakia associated mostly with coal mining regions. In Poland, the same practice was conducted with the name ''górnik''. ...

signed Heinz in 2003 and the player enjoyed a fantastic run during 2003–04, leading Baník to the Czech title and ending up as top scorer of the Czech league himself, scoring 19 goals. He went on to play in

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

, where the Czech Republic reached the semi-finals.

Back to Germany

Heinz moved back to Germany when

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

signed him in August 2004, but he only stayed at Mönchengladbach for just over a year, as he headed to Turkish side

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

in 2005. In 2005, Heinz scored two crucial goals for his country and club. He first helped Galatasaray to a 4–1 win over rivals

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

in October, before he scored the all-important third goal against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

which sent the Czechs into the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

held in Germany.

France

In September 2006, he signed a one-year contract with French side

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

after being released by Galatasaray, hoping to finally making an impact at club level outside the Czech Republic. In August 2007, he signed with

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

. On 30 September 2008, he moved to 1. FC Brno. After only one season Heinz left Brno, and on 29 June 2009 it was announced that he signed a one-year contract with

Kapfenberger SV Kapfenberger SV is an Austrian association football club from Kapfenberg, Styria. They won the 2007–08 Austrian Football First League and were promoted to the Austrian Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1919 as ''Kapfenberger SC''. The nam ...

Return to Olomouc

Heinz returned to Olomouc in 2011, signing a two-year contract with the club. Despite playing 20 matches in his first season, Heinz played just seventeen minutes in one substitute appearance in the first half of his second season. In November 2012 manager

Roman Pivarník Roman Pivarník (born 17 February 1967) is a Slovak football manager and former player. Pivarník's playing career included a stint at SK Sigma Olomouc, which included matches in the inaugural season of the Czech First League. He played 17 matche ...

announced Heinz was surplus to requirements and free to find another club. He joined second league 1. SC Znojmo

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

in January 2013 for the rest of the season.

Career statistics

References

External links

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Marek Heinz
at HLSZ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heinz, Marek 1977 births Living people Czech people of German descent Footballers from Olomouc Men's association football forwards Czech men's footballers AFK Atlantic Lázně Bohdaneč players SK Sigma Olomouc players Hamburger SV players Arminia Bielefeld players Dukla Prague footballers FC Baník Ostrava players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Galatasaray S.K. footballers AS Saint-Étienne players FC Nantes players FC Zbrojovka Brno players Kapfenberger SV players Ferencvárosi TC footballers 1. SC Znojmo FK players Czech First League players Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Czech Republic men's youth international footballers Czech Republic men's under-21 international footballers Czech Republic men's international footballers Olympic footballers for the Czech Republic Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Czech expatriate men's footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in Germany Czech expatriate sportspeople in France Czech expatriate sportspeople in Austria Czech expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Czech expatriate sportspeople in Hungary 21st-century Czech sportsmen