Stanislav Šesták (; born 16 December 1982) is a retired Slovak

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

striker,

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, as well as a club official and a local politician. Šesták last managed Slovakia's oldest club Tatran Prešov in 3. Liga - East.

Club career

Slovakia

Šesták made his first football steps in

Demjata Demjata (, rue, Демята) is a village and municipality in Prešov District in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1330. Geography The municipality lies at an altitude ...

, where he played one season in local club FK Demjata, in team U15. His parents took him to youth camp of 1. FC Tatran Prešov. This was his first step to professional football. Officially, Šesták started his career at Tatran Prešov. In December 2001, he moved to Slovan Bratislava. He only played two seasons in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

and then moved on to MŠK Žilina in December 2003. In the 2005–06 season, Šesták took with 17 goals the fourth place in the top goalscorer list of the

Slovak league Slovak may refer to: * Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'') * Slovaks The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group ...

. One year later his club MŠK Žilina won the Slovak championship. Šesták scored 15 goals in that season and was second in the Slovak top goalscorer list.

VfL Bochum

On 7 June 2007, Šesták joined German

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 ...

side VfL Bochum. He signed a four-year contract at the club until 2011. At Bochum he was expected to replace the Greek international

Theofanis Gekas Theofanis "Fanis" Gekas ( el, Θεοφάνης "Φάνης" Γκέκας; born 23 May 1980) is a Greek professional football official, coach and a former player, who played as a striker. He is the manager of Turkish fourth-tier TFF Third League ...

who, after winning the top scorer crown in the previous season, had been transferred to

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. Šesták made a total of 86 appearances for VfL Bochum and scored 28 goals (17 assists) during his three-year spell with the Ruhr valley outfit. In the 2007–08 season he was with 13 goals and 9 assists the third-best scorer in the league, behind FC Bayern Munich's

Luca Toni Luca Toni (; born 26 May 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competition ...

and Werder Bremen's

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. On 11 April 2009, Šesták marked within 27 minutes against

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 18 ...

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

(due to the half-time break between the first two goals, however, it could be counted as flawless).

In Turkey

After Bochum's relegation to 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 ...

he was loaned for the 2010–11 season for one year to Turkish side

MKE Ankaragücü MKE Ankaragücü or fully Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi Ankaragücü (), is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Ankara. The football team wears a yellow and navy kit and plays its home matches at Eryaman Stadium following the closure of t ...

. During his one-year spell, he racked up 24 appearances for the club, scoring ten goals (two assists). In June 2011, Šesták was transferred permanently to the club for an undisclosed transfer fee. However, due to the financial troubles of that club, Bochum had (as of January 2013) never received the entire transfer fee and MKE Ankaragücü still owed them about €2.374 million, Only three months later, in September 2011, Šesták moved to league rivals

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In th ...

where he signed a three-year contract.

Ferencváros

On 16 June 2015, Šesták signed for Hungarian top club

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváro ...

. On 2 April 2016, he became Hungarian League champion with Ferencváros after losing to

Debreceni VSC Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club is a professional football club, based in Debrecen, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the first tier of Hungarian football. They are best known internationally for reaching the group stages of the ...

2–1 at the

Nagyerdei Stadion Nagyerdei Stadion is an all-seater asymmetric football stadium in Debrecen, Hungary and home to Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club (the seats behind the goals are 'Vario' or 'Rail' seats to facilitate safe standing at domestic matches). With space fo ...

in the

2015–16 Nemzeti Bajnokság I The 2015–16 Nemzeti Bajnokság I, also known as NB I, is the 117th season of top-tier football in Hungary. The league is officially named ''OTP Bank Liga'' for sponsorship reasons. The season began 17 July 2015 and will conclude on 8 May 2016. ...

season.

International career

Šesták began his youth career in 2000. During his youth career he was a member of Slovak under-18 and under-21 national teams. Since 2004, Šesták played regularly for the Slovak national team. He has earned his first senior cap when he was 21 years old in a 3-1 victory over

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

on 18 August 2004, when he came on as a substitute for

Szilárd Németh Szilárd Németh (; ; born 8 August 1977) is a Slovak former professional footballer who played as a striker. After playing for clubs in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, he spent four-and-a-half seasons at Middlesbrough of the Premier League f ...

for the last six minutes of the game. He scored his first senior international goals against

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on 13 October 2007. His first opponent after his move to VfL Bochum was the German national team. He was one of the most important players of his national team during their

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oc ...

campaign when he became the top scorer of his team with 6 goals in 6 matches and helped to qualify for their first major tournament ever. On 15 October 2008, Šesták scored two quick goals in the closing minutes against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

to turn the game around from 0–1. He also scored the first goal in the match Czech Republic-Slovakia on 1 April 2009. As a part of the Slovak squad at

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

he played in every match of Slovakia in the group stage. During the era of coaching duo Griga and Hipp he was mostly ignored by them and was nominated only for one friendly match against

on 26 May 2012, where he played in the first 57 minutes. He returned to international football under the new coach of Slovak national team Ján Kozák on 14 August 2013, with a goal in a 1–1 away draw with Romania. He also helped his country to qualify for their first

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

. He has appeared in three matches during their successful qualification campaign and scored a game-closing goal against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

on 12 October 2014 in the 92nd minute. It was also his last international goal. He was also a member of their final squad at

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. Mostly on the bench during the tournament, Šesták played in their last game of the tournament in the Round of 16 against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

on 26 June 2016, which they lost 0-3. He came on as a substitute for Michal Ďuriš in the 64th minute. After the match, he has officially announced his retirement from international football after 12 years, at the age of 33. At the time of his retirement he was the sixth best goalscorer of Slovakia with 13 goals in 66 matches.

Coaching and later career

At the end of April 2017, Šesták was appointed playing caretaker manager of FK Poprad until the end of the season. He continued as a part of the staff for the 2017-18 season, functioning as a playing assistant manager. In the summer 2019, he retired from professional football and was instead hired as sporting director of FK Poprad. He also returned to play for his former youth club FK Demjata.

Other activities

In October 2022, Šesták became a

city councillor A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council ...

Prešov Prešov (, hu, Eperjes, Rusyn and Ukrainian: Пряшів) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj) and Šariš, as well as the historic Sáros County of the Kingdom of Hungary. With ...

, supporting mayoral candidate, fellow official of Tatran Prešov and a former international football referee

Ľuboš Micheľ Ľuboš Micheľ (; born May 16, 1968) is a retired Slovak football referee. Referee career At a young age, Micheľ refereed a number of games in Lebanon. Micheľ became a FIFA referee at the age of 25. Micheľ was selected to referee the 2003 ...

. He ran as a joint candidate of HLAS-SD and Aliancia in city's first electoral precinct.

Private life

Šesták is married to his wife Milka Šestáková. The couple has three children. In December 2022, Šesták's family home in

burned down.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

MŠK Žilina *

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 ...

: 2003-04, 2006-07 Ferencvaros * Nemzeti Bajnokság I: 2015–16 *

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

: 2015–16

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sestak, Stanislav 1982 births Living people People from Prešov District Slovak footballers Slovak expatriate footballers Slovak football managers Association football forwards Slovakia international footballers Slovakia youth international footballers Slovakia under-21 international footballers 2010 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2016 players Slovak Super Liga players 2. Liga (Slovakia) players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players MKE Ankaragücü footballers MŠK Žilina players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players VfL Bochum players Bursaspor footballers Ferencvárosi TC footballers FK Poprad players 1. FC Tatran Prešov managers 3. Liga (Slovakia) managers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate footballers in Hungary