Miroslav Karhan (born 21 June 1976) is a Slovak

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Karhan started and finished his career at

Spartak Trnava FC Spartak Trnava () is a professional football club based in Trnava, Slovakia. The club competes in Slovak First Football League, the top flight in the Slovak league system, having participated in more seasons than any other club. Founded in ...

; in between, he played in Spain, Turkey and Germany, where he spent ten seasons. Karhan was a regular member of the Slovakia national team and with 107 appearances, played the second most matches of any player to represent them.

Club career

Karhan began his career with local club

. In 1999, he signed a four-year contract with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

club

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

, becoming the third Slovak player to join a Spanish league club in the 1990s after Peter Dubovský and

Samuel Slovák Samuel Slovák (born 17 October 1975) is a Slovak former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and currently serves as an assistant coach of Slovakia. Best known for his technical and passing abilities, his career was mostly associate ...

. In 2002, he was named Slovak Footballer of the Year. Karhan joined

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sport-Verein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05 or simply Mainz 05 (), is a German professional sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top tie ...

of the 2. Bundesliga on a free transfer from Wolfsburg in July 2007, signing a two-year contract. Having spent four seasons with Mainz 05, Karhan returned to Spartak Trnava in June 2011 before serving as club captain for two more seasons. In August 2013, Karhan announced his retirement from professional football and that he moved to a role of sports director of Spartak Trnava.

International career

Karhan made 107 appearances for

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

for 16 years, being the most-capped Slovak footballer of all time, until his record was surpassed by

Marek Hamšík Marek Hamšík (; born 27 July 1987) is a Slovak football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the team manager and assistant coach for the Slovakia national team. After beginning his club career with Slovan B ...

in October 2018. He captained the national team.

Personal life

Karhan is the father of two boys:

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

, who currently plays for

and represented Slovakia at youth international level, and Alex Thomas.

Career statistics

International

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

References

External links

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Miroslav Karhan
at RSSSF {{DEFAULTSORT:Karhan, Miroslav 1976 births Living people People from Hlohovec Footballers from the Trnava Region Men's association football midfielders Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Slovak football managers FC Spartak Trnava players Real Betis players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers VfL Wolfsburg players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players OFK Malženice players La Liga players Slovak First Football League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players 5. Liga players 4. Liga (Slovakia) players FIFA Men's Century Club FC Spartak Trnava managers Slovak First Football League managers ŠK Báhoň managers 3. Liga (Slovakia) managers KFC Komárno managers 2. Liga (Slovakia) managers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany