Marek Mintál (; born 2 September 1977) is a Slovak former 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, rugb ...

who played as a

attacking 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 ...

or forward. He is the current manager of 1. FC Nürnberg II and assistant coach of the Slovakia national team.

Playing career

Mintál started to play football in Slovak club

MŠK Žilina MŠK Žilina () is a Slovak football club based in the town of Žilina, that is playing in the Slovak Superliga. Since the league inception in 1993, the club has won 7 titles and comes second in All-time table that makes them one of the most ...

, with whom he won back-to-back Slovak championships in 2001–02 and 2002–03. This was also due to his scoring 20 (2001–02) and 21 (2002–03) goals respectively. With this number of goals he also became the Slovak top scorer in both seasons. Therefore, he was capped for the Slovak national team for the first time on 6 February 2002. He has won 33 caps and scored 11 goals for the Slovak national team. After the 2002–03 season, he was transferred to

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bunde ...

for an alleged transfer fee of €100,000 and an agreement that should Mintál be transferred again, MŠK Žilina would receive a portion of the transfer fee. His new club was playing in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

at this time. He continued his scoring run by scoring 18 goals and becoming the German second division's leading scorer and was a crucial part of Nürnberg's immediate

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. During that season, Mintál, an offensive midfielder, became widely regarded for his inconspicuous style of play, which has led to him being called "

stealth bomber Stealth aircraft are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radar, infrared, visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio, collectively known as stealth technology. The F-117 Nig ...

", "Sniper" or "Phantom". In the following year, Mintál led the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

in scoring with 24 goals, and helped Nürnberg stave off

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...

. His continuous success in scoring goals sparked rumours that he might move to a bigger club during the 2005 summer break. He had been linked in transfer speculation with

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, ...

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

and

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

. These rumours did not lead to a transfer and Mintal decided to stay at Nürnberg. However the following season turned out to be disastrous for the Slovak striker who broke his foot twice in the span of five months. Thus, the offensive midfielder only played in four games and scored just a single goal. He celebrated his competitive comeback against

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional football club based in Mönchengladbach, Nort ...

when coming on as a substitute after 60 minutes. Two weeks later, he also played for his country again, scoring two goals against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. Later the same year, he was troubled again by his broken foot and had to undergo surgery for a second time. Mintál won the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

with 1. FC Nürnberg in the year 2007. In this game, he also scored a goal, during this match, he was injured by

Fernando Meira Fernando José da Silva Freitas Meira (; born 5 June 1978) is a Portuguese former footballer who played mainly as a central defender. In his country, he represented most notably Vitória de Guimarães, also playing one year with Benfica. Afte ...

, a Portuguese defender from VfB Stuttgart. 1. FC Nürnberg won the game 3–2 after extra time. He scored a brace in a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

match against AZ to keep their European dreams alive. His player career ended in 2013.

Coaching career

For the 2013–14 season until October 2014, he assisted his former team 1. FC Nürnberg in coaching before transferring to Slovakia to complete his

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

license. Mintál returned to Nürnberg as assistant coach for the 2015–16 season and is currently also assistant coach of its U19 team. On 12 February 2019 he was named interim assistant coach of the first team. He was promoted as the head coach on 4 November 2019 for one game.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

''As of 15 January 2011'' MŠK Žilina *

Slovak Superliga 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 ...

: 2001–02, 2002–03 * Slovak Super Cup: 2003 1. FC Nürnberg *

: 2006–07 *

: 2003–04 Individual * Slovak Superliga top scorer: 2001–02, 2002–03 *

top scorer: 2003–04, 2008–09 * Slovak Footballer of the Year: 2004, 2005 * Slovak Footballer of the Decade (2000–2009) * German Bundesliga top scorer: 2005

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mintal, Marek 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Žilina Slovak footballers Association football midfielders Association football forwards Slovakia international footballers Slovakia under-21 international footballers Slovak Super Liga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players MŠK Žilina players 1. FC Nürnberg players 1. FC Nürnberg II players FC Hansa Rostock players Olympic footballers of Slovakia Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Kicker-Torjägerkanone Award winners Slovak football managers 2. Bundesliga managers 1. FC Nürnberg managers Slovak expatriate footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany