Igor Bališ (born 5 January 1970) is a former Slovak

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 ...

. Bališ played for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

in England. He has also appeared for Spartak Trnava and Slovan Bratislava, as well as the Slovakia national team. Bališ joined Albion in November 2000 for £150,00. He made his Albion debut on 23 December 2000, coming on as a late substitute in a 3–0 win against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. He converted a dramatic stoppage time penalty against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

in the penultimate game of the 2001–02 season, which put Albion on the brink of promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. Albion were on an unbeaten 8 game run coming into the match with Bradford but the game had been played out as an attritional 0-0, with both sides unable to score when Bob Taylor was brought down in the 90th minute of the game to secure the penalty. Despite the opportunity to score it was uncertain who was going to take the spot kick as Albion had missed 8 of the 11 penalties they had been awarded that season, the clubs recognized strikers,

Scott Dobie Robert Scott Dobie (born 10 October 1978) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a striker. Although born in England, Dobie played six times for Scotland at full international level in 2002. During a 16-year career he played for Carlis ...

and Bob Taylor had both missed one. Balis volunteered to take the spot kick, despite never having taken one in a professional game before, a fact both his manager,

Gary Megson Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager. He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and ...

, and his playing colleagues were unaware of. He scored shooting low and to the right of the goalkeeper. The penalty secured a 1-0 victory and Albion’s victory kept the possibility of promotion in their hands and local rivals

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

would be unable to catch them in the final day unless Albion lost. April 13th, the date of the match with Bradford City, is celebrated by West Bromwich Albion fans as ‘Igor Balis Day’ in recognition of the importance of scoring the penalty that took the club to the premier league. After completing a season in the Premiership with Albion, Bališ quit the club and returned home to Slovakia, after suffering a recurrence of tinnitus.

References

External links

* * 1970 births Living people People from Trnava District FC Spartak Trnava players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Slovak footballers Slovak expatriate footballers Slovak Super Liga players Premier League players Slovakia international footballers Association football fullbacks Expatriate footballers in England Slovak expatriate sportspeople in England {{Slovakia-footy-defender-stub