Marek Krejčí (20 November 1980 – 26 May 2007) 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 ...

er who played as a striker.

Career

Born in

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. ...

, he started his career with local club

Inter Bratislava FK Inter Bratislava () is a football club based in Bratislava, Slovakia, temporarily playing its home matches in Štadion Pasienky. History Inter Bratislava was founded in 1940 by the Apollo refinery (later renamed Slovnaft). Following the end o ...

, moving to

Spartak Trnava FC Spartak Trnava () is a professional football club based in Trnava, Slovakia. The club competes in Slovak First Football League, the top flight in the Slovak league system, having participated in more seasons than any other club. Founded in ...

in November 2000. He went on to move to Hungarian side Győri ETO in September 2001, eventually returning to Slovakia in the summer of 2003, when he signed a contract with one of the country's top clubs

Artmedia Bratislava Artmedia was one of the first scientific projects concerning the relationship between art, technology, philosophy and aesthetics. It was founded in 1985 at the University of Salerno. For over two decades, until 2009, dozens of projects, studies, e ...

. He only spent one season with the team, winning the

Slovak Cup The Slovak Cup (), currently named Slovnaft Cup due to sponsorship agreement with Slovnaft, is the only nationwide Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in Football in Slovakia, Slovak football. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Euro ...

in 2004 and making two

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

appearances in the autumn of 2003, scoring two goals. He was also the second best goalscorer of the Slovak League for the 2003–04 season, scoring 15 goals. On 31 March 2004, he played his first and only game for the Slovak national team, playing the first half of their friendly match against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

which ended in a 1–1 draw. In the summer of 2004, he joined German 2. Bundesliga side

Wacker Burghausen SV Wacker Burghausen is a German football club based in Burghausen, Bavaria and is part of one of the nation's largest sports clubs with some 6,000 members participating in two dozen different sports. History The club was founded on 13 Novemb ...

on a one-season loan from Artmedia Bratislava, but the deal was made permanent upon the end of the 2004–05 season. He made his debut for the club on 3 October 2004 in a 4–2 win over 1860 München in which he also scored one goal. In three seasons of playing for Wacker Burghausen, he made 87 appearances and scored 26 goals in the 2nd Bundesliga. He had a contract until 2008 with the club and was thinking of staying with them for another season despite their relegation to the third division in 2007. Towards the end of the 2005–06 season, he was rumoured with a move to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

after scoring 14 goals in the 2. Bundesliga and sharing the position of the league's second best goalscorer with

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

Giovanni Federico Giovanni Federico (born 4 October 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Playing career Federico was born in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He agreed to join Borussia Dortmund from Karlsruher S ...

Death

He died in a road accident near

Maitenbeth Maitenbeth is a municipality in the district of Mühldorf in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in the early morning of 26 May 2007, around 5:40 CEST. He was driving his

Audi S3 The Audi S3 is a performance version of the Audi A3 small family car, produced by German automaker Audi since 1999. S3 variants of have been produced from the first generation thru the fourth generation of Audi A3. Like all Audi S models, it is ...

on the road B12 in direction

Mühldorf Mühldorf am Inn (, ; Central Bavarian: ''Muihdorf am Inn'') is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Mühldorf (district), district Mühldorf on the river Inn (river), Inn. It is located at , and had a population of ab ...

, being on his way back to Burghausen from

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, when he lost control over the car in a left turn. The car subsequently swung off the road and continued to spin for about 50 metres before its roof hit a tree in the adjacent forest. Krejčí was left trapped inside the vehicle and the fire brigade were unable to save him. No other cars were involved in the accident, but the road was closed for about three hours. Probable cause of the accident was suspected to have been excessive speeding. He left behind his wife and 10-year-old daughter. On 29 May 2007, Wacker Burghausen decided to retire his shirt number 11.

References

External links

Marek Krejčí
at worldfootball.net
Obituary at the official Bundesliga website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krejci, Marek 1980 births 2007 deaths Road incident deaths in Germany Footballers from Bratislava Men's association football forwards Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's international footballers FK Inter Bratislava players Győri ETO FC players SV Wacker Burghausen players FC Petržalka players FC Spartak Trnava players Slovak First Football League players 2. Bundesliga players Slovak expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Germany Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Hungary 21st-century Slovak sportsmen