Ján Kozák (born 22 April 1980) is a Slovak football coach and former player. He is the manager of Slovak 1st tier team

FC Košice FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

Club career

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, Kozák joined Bratislava in the year 2003, winning the

Corgoň 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, ...

with the club the very next season, 2004–05. He scored 7 goals in 34 appearances in the season. In 2005–06, he played in 11 matches for the club, scoring three goals, before moving to

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 pl ...

in January 2006. He made his debut for Albion on 4 February 2006, coming on as a substitute for

Geoff Horsfield Geoffrey Malcolm Horsfield (born 1 November 1973) is an English former professional footballer and football coach. He made more than 300 appearances in the Football League playing as a striker. He was a "strong and forceful" player, able to h ...

in a Premier League match against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. He was not considered good enough for the then manager

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

to sign, so left at the end of his loan spell. He made his debut for Poli Timișoara in an away match at

Gloria Bistriţa Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins) ...

. On 21 July 2010, he was released. Ján Kozák ended his career playing in the

Austrian 2. Landesliga The Austrian 2. Landesliga is the fifth tier of football in Austria. It is divided among the Austrian states by one or more conferences. The champions of each conference are promoted to the Landesliga. *Burgenland: ''2. Liga Nord'', ''2. Liga Mit ...

for DSG Union Perg. and SV Stripfing.

International career

He made his first appearance for

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), 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 s ...

on 30 November 2004, a 1–0 win against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

.Footballdatabase.eu: Hungary – Slovakia 0:1
/ref> Kozák has played in Euro 2008 qualifying and 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. He was selected to take the captain's armband. He also made the squad for Slovakia's World Cup debut in 2010.

Managerial career

On 1 August 2015, he became the head coach of Slovan Bratislava B. He was named the interim manager of the first team in July 2019. After a successful spell as interim coach, Kozák was given the role on a permanent basis in August 2019. He subsequently progressed with Slovan into the group stage of

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

and won the Slovak double. He was sacked by the club in September 2020.

Personal life

Kozak' father, Ján, was also former national player. He has 55 caps for

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and was also head coach of

. His nephew Filip Lesniak is also a professional footballer.

Footgolf

As a

footgolf Footgolf is a sport in which players kick a football into a cup in as few shots as possible. The name is a portmanteau of association football and golf, and the game combines the two sports, being more closely related to golf. Rules The game ...

er, he won the bronze medal in the 2016 FootGolf World Cup held in Argentina.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Player

MFK Kosiče *

Corgoň 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, ...

: 1997–98, Artmedia Petržalka *

: 2004–05, 2007–08 *

Slovak Cup The Slovak Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Slovak football. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa Conference League. History The competition was first contested in 1969. Until 1993, the winner of the Slovak Cup would face the w ...

: 2003–04 , 2007–08 Slovan Bratislava *

: 2009–10, FC Bunyodkor *

Uzbekistan Super League Uzbekistan Super League ( uz, O'zbekiston Superligasi), also called Coca-Cola Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons ( uz, Coca-Cola O'zbekiston Superligasi / Coca-Cola Ўзбекистон Суперлигаси), is the top division ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Uzbekistan Cup The O‘zbekiston Kubogi or ( uz, O‘zbekiston Kubogi, script=Latn or ) Uzbek Cup is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer). Previous champions All champions as Uzbek SSR in Soviet times: *1939: Dinamo Tashkent *1940: Dinamo T ...

: 2012

Manager

Slovan Bratislava *

Fortuna 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, ...

: 2019–20 * Slovnaft Cup: 2019–20

Individual

* Slovak Manager of the Year: 2019

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kozak, Jan 1980 births Living people Footballers from Košice Slovak men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Slovakia men's international footballers 2010 FIFA World Cup players Slovak First Football League players Czech First League players Premier League players Liga I players Belgian Pro League players FC VSS Košice players FC Petržalka players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players SK Slavia Prague players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players FC Politehnica Timișoara players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players FC Bunyodkor players Slovak football managers ŠK Slovan Bratislava managers FC Košice (2018) managers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Uzbekistan Expatriate men's footballers in Uzbekistan