Juraj Halenár (28 June 1983 – 30 June 2018) was a Slovak

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

forward who was most famous for playing for Slovan Bratislava.

Club career

Halenár, a native of

Trnava Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...

, moved to

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

at the age of 18, when he joined Slovakia's reigning champions, Inter Bratislava. He impressed in the 2004-05 campaign, in which he scored 12 goals for the club in the

Corgoň Liga The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following the ...

. Following the first game of the new season, in which he bagged two goals against

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; ; ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of approximately 27,000. Etymology The name of the initial settlement located on today's Makovický street was ''Revúca'' ( Slovak "roaring ...

, Halenár transferred to Artmedia for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of 20 million

Slovak crowns The Slovak koruna or Slovak crown (, literally meaning ''Slovak crown'') was the currency of Slovakia between 8 February 1993 and 31 December 2008, and could be used for cash payment until 16 January 2009. The ISO 4217 code was ''SKK'' and the lo ...

. In only his second game for Artmedia on 27 July 2005, he scored a

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 Wick ...

against

Celtic Glasgow The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...

in the 2005

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

second qualifying round tie. In summer 2008, Halenár was sold to Slovan Bratislava. The striker scored two goals on his debut for Slovan in a 4–1 victory against Tatran Prešov. He became the top all time scorer in the Slovak top flight on 10 August 2014, when he scored a brace against

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

, surpassing Róbert Semeník's record of 120 goals. In January 2015, Halenár left the Slovak league and signed for Hungarian team

Nyíregyháza Spartacus Nyíregyháza (, ) is a city with county rights in northeastern Hungary and the county capital of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. With a population of 118,001, it is the Cities of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, seventh-largest city in Hungary an ...

, where he stayed until the end of the season. Afterwards, he joined Sigma Olomouc on 9 July 2015. In December 2015, he left the club due to family reasons.

International career

Halenár played at two youth tournaments for his country, the

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

in 2002 and the Under-20

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

in 2003. On 13 November 2007, he made his debut for Slovakia's senior team in a qualifying game for the 2008 European Championship against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Halenár also played in next two matches of the national team, when he came on as a substitute against

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

Death

On 30 June 2018, just two days after his 35th birthday, Halenár was found dead in the woods of Vrakuňa outside the Slovak capital of

. The first reports state that he committed suicide.

Honours

Slovakia

;Slovakia U20 * 2003 FIFA U-20 World Cup: Participation ;Slovakia U19 *

2002 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the first edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, after the previous Under-18 competition was renamed. The tournament was held in Norway, between 21 July and 28 July 2002. The top three ...

- Third place

References

External links

*
Slovan Bratislava profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halenar, Juraj 1983 births 2018 deaths Footballers from Trnava Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's youth international footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Slovak expatriate men's footballers FK Inter Bratislava players FC Petržalka players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Nyíregyháza Spartacus FC players SK Sigma Olomouc players FK Iskra Borčice players Slovak First Football League players 2. Liga (Slovakia) players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Czech First League players Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Austria Men's association football forwards Suicides in Slovakia 21st-century Slovak sportsmen