Marek Mintál (; born 2 September 1977) is a Slovak professional

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coach and a former player who played as a

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or forward.

Playing career

Mintál started to play football in Slovak club

MŠK Žilina MŠK Žilina () is a Slovak football club based in the town of Žilina, that is playing in the Slovak First Football League. Since the league inception in 1993, the club has won 7 titles and comes second in All-time table that makes them one o ...

, with whom he won back-to-back Slovak championships in 2001–02 and 2002–03. This was also due to his scoring 20 (2001–02) and 21 (2002–03) goals respectively. With this number of goals he also became the Slovak top scorer in both seasons. Therefore, he was capped for the Slovak national team for the first time on 6 February 2002. He has won 33 caps and scored 11 goals for the Slovak national team. After the 2002–03 season, he was transferred to 1. FC Nürnberg for an alleged transfer fee of €100,000 and an agreement that should Mintál be transferred again, MŠK Žilina would receive a portion of the transfer fee. His new club was playing in the 2. Bundesliga at this time. He continued his scoring run by scoring 18 goals and becoming the German second division's leading scorer and was a crucial part of Nürnberg's immediate

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. During that season, Mintál, an offensive midfielder, became widely regarded for his inconspicuous style of play, which has led to him being called " stealth bomber", "Sniper" or "Phantom". In the following year, Mintál led 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 ...

in scoring with 24 goals, and helped Nürnberg stave off

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. His continuous success in scoring goals sparked rumours that he might move to a bigger club during the 2005 summer break. He had been linked in transfer speculation with

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and

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

. These rumours did not lead to a transfer and Mintal decided to stay at Nürnberg. However the following season turned out to be disastrous for the Slovak striker who broke his foot twice in the span of five months. Thus, the offensive midfielder only played in four games and scored just a single goal. He celebrated his competitive comeback against

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 ...

when coming on as a substitute after 60 minutes. Two weeks later, he also played for his country again, scoring two goals against

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. Later the same year, he was troubled again by his broken foot and had to undergo surgery for a second time. Mintál won the

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with 1. FC Nürnberg in the year 2007. In this game, he also scored a goal, during this match, he was injured by Fernando Meira, a Portuguese defender from VfB Stuttgart. 1. FC Nürnberg won the game 3–2 after extra time. He scored a brace in a

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match against AZ to keep their European dreams alive. His player career ended in 2013.

Coaching career

For the 2013–14 season until October 2014, he assisted his former team 1. FC Nürnberg in coaching before transferring to Slovakia to complete his

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

license. Mintál returned to Nürnberg as assistant coach for the 2015–16 season and is currently also assistant coach of its U19 team. On 12 February 2019 he was named interim assistant coach of the first team. He was promoted as the head coach on 4 November 2019 for one game.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Slovakia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mintál goal.''

Honours

''As of 15 January 2011'' MŠK Žilina *

Slovak First Football League 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 Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

: 2001–02, 2002–03 * Slovak Super Cup: 2003 1. FC Nürnberg *

: 2006–07 * 2. Bundesliga: 2003–04 Individual * Slovak First Football League top scorer: 2001–02, 2002–03 * 2. Bundesliga top scorer: 2003–04, 2008–09 * Slovak Footballer of the Year: 2004, 2005 * Slovak Footballer of the Decade (2000–2009) * German Bundesliga top scorer: 2005

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mintal, Marek 1977 births Living people Footballers from Žilina Slovak men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Slovakia men's international footballers Slovakia men's under-21 international footballers Slovak First Football League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players MŠK Žilina players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players FC Hansa Rostock players Olympic footballers for Slovakia Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Kicker-Torjägerkanone Award winners Slovak football managers 2. Bundesliga managers 1. FC Nürnberg managers SpVgg Bayreuth managers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 21st-century Slovak sportsmen