Dávid Hancko (born 13 December 1997) 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 le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

and the Slovakia national team.

Club career

MŠK Žilina

Hancko made his

Slovak Super Liga The Slovak Super Liga is the top level football league in Slovakia, currently known as the Fortuna Liga due to a sponsorship arrangement. It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is eleven, he ...

debut for

Žilina Žilina (; hu, Zsolna, ; german: Sillein, or ; pl, Żylina , 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 fourth largest city of Sl ...

against ŽP Šport Podrbezová on 12 March 2016. He also played in 45 fixtures, scoring 11 goals, in the reserves team, between 2014 and 2018. He was included by UEFA on its list of most promising talents for 2018.

Fiorentina

On 14 June 2018, it was announced that Hancko had signed a five-year contract with

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

. He played in multiple friendly pre-season fixtures, but made his competitive debut on 22 September 2018, after being benched for four matches, during a 3–0 home victory over

S.P.A.L. Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly known as S.P.A.L. (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The team plays in Serie B, the second tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1907, since ...

, substituting

Cristiano Biraghi Cristiano Biraghi (; born 1 September 1992) is an Italian footballer who plays as a left back for Serie A club Fiorentina and the Italy national team. Club career Youth years Born in Cernusco sul Naviglio, the Province of Milan, Biraghi b ...

at half time. His performance was generally well received, receiving an average mark of 7.0/10 by the Sofascore internet portal. During January 2019 transfer window, it was reported that Zenit Saint Peterburg were looking to sign Hancko on a half-season loan, for €500,000, with an option to buy for €20 million. At this point, Hancko had only started as a substitute in two

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

games, but was important for the national team in October and November fixtures of

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

. Nonetheless, Fiorentina did not agree to the terms of the deal. In the season, Hancko was in the starting eleven of games against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

, playing the entire match, and

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, the top two teams in the league table, despite not being fielded in other, minor matches.

Sparta Prague

On 31 July 2022, in a 2–1 home loss against

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

, Hancko made his 100th appearance for Sparta Prague.

Feyenoord

On 22 August 2022, Hancko joined

for 6m euros, signing a four-year contract. He made his debut five days later against

FC Emmen FC Emmen is a Dutch football club based in Emmen, Drenthe. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2021–22 Eerste Divisie title. Founded in 1925, the club entered the professional Eerste Divisie in 1985. I ...

, and provided the assist which enabled

Quinten Timber Quinten Ryan Crispito Timber (born 17 June 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as midfielder for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie. Career Ajax Timber played in the youth academies of DVSU and Feyenoord, before he and his brother joine ...

to score the first goal in a 4–0 win for Feyenoord.

International career

Hancko was initially called up to Slovakia's senior

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

on 2 October 2018 by the coach Ján Kozák, shortly after his debut in

, for matches against

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

(a part of

2018–19 UEFA Nations League The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The league phase of the competition ...

) and a friendly against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

later in October. Hancko was fielded in the match against Czech Republic, in the 80th minute, substituting left-back

Tomáš Hubočan Tomáš Hubočan (; born 17 September 1985) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a defender for Cypriot club Karmiotissa. He made his senior international debut in 2006. He has gone on to make 73 appearances for Slovakia, represe ...

. He also played a game under

Štefan Tarkovič Štefan Tarkovič (born 18 February 1973) is a Slovak football manager. He is currently the manager of Slovakia. He previously managed the teams Žilina Žilina (; hu, Zsolna, ; german: Sillein, or ; pl, Żylina , names in other langua ...

on 16 October 2018, who managed the team on caretaker basis, against Sweden, since Kozák resigned on 14 October 2018. After the international retirement of

in February 2019, Hancko was nominated as the preferred choice as a

, playing the entirety of a qualifying match 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, Croatia a ...

on 21 March 2019. As in previous matches, Hancko presented himself with a quite offensive football, at times playing in the line with attacking midfielders.

Personal life

From 2019 to 2020 he was in a relationship with the model

Laura Longauerová Laura Longauerová (born 30 August 1995) is a Slovak model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Slovensko 2014 and Miss Universe Slovenskej Republiky 2019. She represented Slovakia at the Miss World 2014 competition and also repr ...

. Since the end of 2020, he has been in a relationship with

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

tennis player

Kristýna Plíšková Kristýna Plíšková (; born 21 March 1992) is an inactive Czech professional tennis player. Plíšková has won one singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as nine singles and eight doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 Ju ...

, in July 2021 they got married; they have a son.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Sparta Prague *

Czech First League The Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, is a Czech professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Czech football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Seasons typically r ...

2022–23 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 b ...

Czech Cup The Czech Cup ( cs, Pohár FAČR), officially known as the MOL Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the major men's football cup competition in the Czech Republic. It is organised by the Czech Football Association. The Czech Cup was first held in 19 ...

: 2019–20 Feyenoord *

Individual * Peter Dubovský Award: 2018, *

Team of the Month: October 2022, November 2022,

September 2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

References

External links

MŠK Žilina official club profile
*
Futbalnet profile

Fortuna Liga profile

Eurofotbal profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancko, David 1997 births Living people People from Prievidza Footballers from the Trenčín Region Slovak men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks Slovakia men's international footballers Slovakia men's under-21 international footballers Slovakia men's youth international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players Slovak First Football League players Serie A players Czech First League players Eredivisie players MŠK Žilina players ACF Fiorentina players AC Sparta Prague players Feyenoord players Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands