Mário Pečalka (born 28 December 1980) is a former 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 ...

defender.

Career

Pečalka began playing football in his hometown club OFK Rudina. Later he moved to Kysucké Nové Mesto and then he played for the

Czech Fourth Division The Czech Fourth Division () is the fourth tier of football in the Czech Republic. The level consists of six divisions, named Divize A-F, each holding 16 teams. The top teams from Divize A, B and C are promoted to the Bohemian Football League while ...

team

FK Mutěnice FK Mutěnice is a football club located in Mutěnice (Hodonín District), Czech Republic. It currently plays in the fifth tier of Czech football. The team played in the Moravian–Silesian Football League for four seasons before being forcibly r ...

. In 2003, he came back to his home region to play for the Slovak Fourth League team TJ Slovan Rudinská. In 2004, he was on loan in Slovan Bratislava which was playing in the Slovak Second League in this time. After end of loan he signed for 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 ...

club

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

. He played for Žilina in 103 matches overall, scoring 4 goals. He twice won the Slovak title in Žilina. He became one of the best Corgoň Liga defenders and was selected to the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

in 2009. He played 5 group matches in the

2010–11 UEFA Champions League The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, where Ba ...

. In February 2011, he signed for

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i club

Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv () is a sports club in Israel, founded in the 1920s, and part of the Hapoel association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as football, basketball, w ...

. He made his debut for Hapoel in a 2–0 win against Maccabi Petah Tikva on 14 February 2011. In January 2012, he signed on loan at Slovan Bratislava for half a year. In May 2013, he announced the end of his professional career due persistent back problems.Pečalka uprednostnil zdravie a ukončil kariéru
14.05.2013, profutbal.sk

International career

Pečalka made his national team debut in a 2–3 defeat against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

on 10 February 2009. He was called up to the Slovakia preliminary squad for the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

but manager Vladimír Weiss did not select him for the final tournament squad.

Honours

;Žilina *

(2): 2006–07, 2009–10 *

Slovak Super Cup The Slovak Super Cup (''Slovenský Superpohár'' in Slovak), in the past named as or , was a match between the champion of the Slovak First Football League and winner of the Slovak Cup. The match was played annually besides years when a club cl ...

(2): 2007,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

;Hapoel Tel Aviv *

Israel State Cup The Israel State Cup (, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involves clubs of all standards ...

(1):

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

Hapoel Tel Aviv profile
* 1980 births Living people Men's association football central defenders Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's international footballers ŠK Slovan Bratislava players FK Inter Bratislava players MŠK Žilina players Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. players Slovak First Football League players Israeli Premier League players Slovak expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Israel 21st-century Slovak sportsmen {{Slovakia-footy-defender-stub