Tomáš Hubočan (; born 17 September 1985) is a retired Slovak professional footballer who played as a defender. He made his senior international debut in 2006. He has gone on to make 73 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 ...

, representing his nation at the

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

and the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

tournaments. He retired as 9th most capped international footballer in December 2021.

Club career

MŠK Žilina

Hubočan began in

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 ...

since his youth years, beyond the time when he was on loan in ViOn Zlaté Moravce since January 2006 until June 2006. After the end of loan he came back to

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

and he worked up for one of the best

defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...

Corgoň 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 Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following the ...

. In the 2006–07 season, he won the league with ''Šošoni''.

Zenit

Hubočan signed for Zenit on 11 February 2008 on a three-year contract for €3.8 million, the highest ever paid to a Slovak club. On 30 September 2010, he scored his first goal for Zenit in a UEFA Europa League match against

AEK Athens F.C. A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

Trabzonspor

On 7 September 2017, he joined Turkish club

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 ...

on loan.

Omonia

On 4 September 2019, Hubočan joined Omonia on a one-year deal. He would later sign 2 one-year extensions, thus staying at the club until 2022.

International career

Hubočan played his first international match for

against

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

on 11 December 2006. He was a part of Slovakia's squad for the country's first European Championship tournament in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. Hubočan announced his national team retirement on 22 February 2019, at age 33 along with another national team defender and captain

Martin Škrtel Martin Škrtel (born 15 December 1984) is a Slovak former professional Association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Škrtel previously played for FK AS Trenčín and FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg, before join ...

and forward

Adam Nemec Adam Nemec (; born 2 September 1985) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga II club Voluntari. In his career, he has played in seven countries but mostly for teams in Germany and Romania. During 13 years of internatio ...

. The trio shared a farewell game on 13 October 2019 in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, which coincided with a national team return to

Tehelné pole Tehelné pole or National football stadium () is a multi-use stadium in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was completed in 2019 and is used for football matches, including the home matches of ŠK Slovan Bratislava and the Slovakia national football tea ...

after 10 years. Although Nemec and Škrtel had starred from the start of the game, Hubočan only entered the game symbolically in the 87th minute, due to a

sprain A sprain is a soft tissue injury of the ligaments within a joint, often caused by a sudden movement abruptly forcing the joint to exceed its functional range of motion. Ligaments are tough, inelastic fibers made of collagen that connect two or ...

. He entered with the game at 1–1. Ironically, this was Hubočan's first international game at the famed Slovakian stadium, home to the national team for a number of years. The game ended in the same score. In November 2020, Hubočan came out of retirement, playing in the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament decided the last four teams that qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, to be staged across Europe in June and July 2021. Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play ...

clinching game against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. In June 2021, he was included in the final 26-man roster for the rescheduled

tournament. After Slovakia failed to qualify for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, Hubočan announced his second and definitive retirement in an interview with ''Denník Šport'', citing age and family commitments as main motivations.

Career statistics

Honours

MŠK Žilina *

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 ...

: 2003–04, 2006–07 Zenit St. Petersburg *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, 2011–12 * Russian Cup: 2009–10 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Omonia *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

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 ...

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 2021–22 Slovakia *

King's Cup King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King's Cup (Bahrain), the premier national knockout football tournament * King's ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

Profile at the official FC Zenit St. Petersburg website
*
MŠK Žilina players
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubocan, Tomas 1985 births Living people Footballers from Žilina Men's association football defenders Slovak men's footballers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovakia men's international footballers MŠK Žilina players FC ViOn Zlaté Moravce players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Dynamo Moscow players Olympique de Marseille players Trabzonspor footballers AC Omonia players Karmiotissa FC players Slovak First Football League players Russian Premier League players Ligue 1 players Süper Lig players Cypriot First Division players UEFA Euro 2016 players UEFA Euro 2020 players Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Russia Slovak expatriate sportspeople in France Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus 21st-century Slovak sportsmen