Martin Chrien (; born 8 September 1995) 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 ...

who plays for

MFK Ružomberok MFK Ružomberok () is a Slovak football club, playing in the city of Ružomberok. History Established in 1906, the club's colours have been traditionally white, yellow and red, which are also featured on the town's flag. However, the sponsor ...

as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Born in

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica M ...

, Chrien made his professional debut for the local hegemon,

Dukla Banská Bystrica Dukla is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,017. The total area of the commune is . Dukla belongs to Lesser Poland, and until the ...

against

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of a ...

on 1 December 2012. On 14 May 2014, he signed a four-year contract with Czech club

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victor ...

, joining the senior team at the start of the 2014–15 season. He was then loaned to

Dynamo České Budějovice "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the founda ...

and

Zbrojovka Brno Pre-war Československá zbrojovka, akc.spol. (or a.s.) (Czechoslovak Armory)and post-war Zbrojovka Brno, n.p.(Brno Armory) was a maker of small arms, light artillery, and motor vehicles in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It also made other products and ...

in the Czech Republic, and

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; german: Rosenberg; hu, Rózsahegy; pl, Rużomberk) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of around 27,000 inhabitants (45,000 with nearby villages). Etymology The name of the initia ...

in Slovakia, respectively. On 29 June 2017, he moved to Portugal and signed a five-year contract with defending champions Benfica Lisbon. He made his debut on 20 August 2017, in a league fixture against

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

, in a 5–0 win, coming on in the 71st minute of the match. Later in autumn he was relegated to the B-team, playing 16 games in

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pri ...

. During the winter transfer window he was initially linked with a loan to Croatian clubs

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979 ...

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

, as he did not get sufficient play time at Benfica, but neither of the moves took place. Chrien spent the 2018–19 season with Santa Clara, who returned to the top division after 15 years of wait. His position in the squad was contested, playing 18 of 34 league games and 1

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, c ...

fixture. He scored 1 goal in the season. During this campaign, he was first nominated into Slovakia's senior national team. In January 2020, Chrien signed with

Mezőkövesd Mezőkövesd is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies from Miskolc and from Eger. History The area has been inhabited since the Great Migration. It is likely that the first Hungarian settlement was formed here sh ...

as a free agent, following low play in Benfica in 2020.

International career

Chrien was first called up to the senior national team by Pavel Hapal, who coached him for the majority of his U-21 international career. Hapal cited strong physical play in midfield and improved play time at Santa Clara as the primary reasons for the nomination for the double

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europ ...

fixture against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Chrien however failed to make the appearance, not even making it to the match sheet of either of the fixtures. Chrien made his senior debut for Slovakia on 7 June 2019 in a friendly match against

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

, as a starter, and scored the second goal in a 5–1 victory.

International goals

(Slovakia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Chrien goal)

Notes and references

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chrien, Martin 1995 births Living people Footballers from Banská Bystrica Slovak men's footballers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovakia men's youth international footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders FK Dukla Banská Bystrica players FC Viktoria Plzeň players SK Dynamo České Budějovice players FC Zbrojovka Brno players MFK Ružomberok players S.L. Benfica footballers S.L. Benfica B players C.D. Santa Clara players Mezőkövesdi SE footballers FK Pohronie players Slovak First Football League players Czech First League players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary