Marek Rodák (born 13 December 1996) 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 as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club Fulham and the Slovakia national team.

Club career

Marek Rodák began his career in his homeland with MFK Košice before being offered a trial with Fulham in 2013. He was signed permanently by the Fulham Academy in July 2013 at the age of 16. Despite his young age, he became part of the Under-18 side and played in the 2014 Final of the FA Youth Cup against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. A short two-month loan to Farnborough in January 2015 was followed by a progression to Fulham's Under-21 side. On 15 January 2016, he joined

Welling United Welling United Football Club is a professional football club, based in Welling in the London Borough of Bexley, England. The club's first team play in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football. History Welling United Foot ...

on loan for the remainder of the season. Rodák joined

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

on loan from Fulham until the end of the 2016–17 season in January 2017. He made his

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

debut on 14 January 2017 against

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...

Whaddon Road Whaddon Road, known as the Completely-Suzuki Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Cheltenham, England. It is the home ground of Cheltenham Town F.C. It has a total capacity of 7,066, with a mixture of seating and terracing ...

. Rodák had a significant role in Accrington Stanley's move from the relegation zone to a comfortably mid-table position, courtesy of a 13 match unbeaten run. Rodák made his Fulham debut in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

tie against

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

on 8 August 2017. Later that month Rodak joined

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

on loan for the rest of the season and made his debut in a 3–2 win at home to Bury. He then re-joined the club for a further season-long loan on 25 July 2018. Returning to his home team Fulham for the 2019–20 season he was awarded with the position of First Team goalkeeper. He made 38 appearances that season as he helped them achieve promotion via the Play-offs. Rodák made his Premier League debut on 12 September 2020 in a 0–3 loss to Arsenal in the first round of 2020–21 season. He then spent the rest of the season as a backup for

Alphonse Areola Alphonse Francis Areola (; born 27 February 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United and the France national team. An academy graduate of PSG, he spent the early parts of his ...

and made only one additional league appearance in 0–2 loss to Newcastle United on the last day of the season. He made his 2022-23 Premier League debut on 6 August, playing the entire 2–2 home draw against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

International career

Rodák was called up to the Slovakia senior team in June 2018 but didn't make an appearance. In September 2018, Rodák scored a 94th minute winner for Slovakia U21s in a crucial 2019 European Under-21 Championship qualifying game against Iceland U21s. This wasn't his first goal scored at under-21 level, having previously scored for Fulham against Aston Villa in the U21s Premier League in 2014. On 7 September 2020, Rodák made his senior team debut in

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 ...

match against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, which ended in 1–1 draw. He went on to start in another four matches in 2020, including two Euro 2020 qualification play-off matches. He made a save in the penalty shootout against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 8 October 2020, and helped the team to secure 2–1 win

after extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

on 12 November 2020, which qualified Slovakia for

Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

Rotherham United *

EFL League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise t ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

Fulham * EFL Championship: 2021–22 * EFL Championship play-offs:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

External links

* * *
Fulham FC profileFutbalnet profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodak, Marek 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Košice Slovak footballers Association football goalkeepers Fulham F.C. players Farnborough F.C. players Welling United F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Slovakia youth international footballers Slovakia under-21 international footballers Slovakia international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players Slovak expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Slovak expatriate sportspeople in England