Nastja Čeh (born 26 January 1978) is a Slovenian retired 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Čeh started his career with his hometown club Drava Ptuj. By the age of 17 he was playing in the first team in the 2. SNL. In the 1996–97 season he moved from Drava to

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

, later spending one season at Olimpija before returning to Maribor. Čeh then moved on to

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

. His first season at the club brought success in the

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

, and the following season he helped the club win their 12th league title. In August 2002 he scored a late equalising goal in the second-leg of Brugge's Champions League third round qualifying tie against

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

. Brugge then went on to qualify through a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. In 2005 Čeh was sold to

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

. Jupiler League team

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

tried to buy Čeh in late August 2006 but in 2007 he instead signed for Russian Premier Liga side

FC Khimki FC Khimki () was a Russian professional football club based in Khimki. History The team was formed in 1996 by merging two amateur clubs from Khimki, Rodina, and Novator. Khimki entered the amateur league and played their first official match on ...

, where he was given the number 10 shirt. On 5 January 2009, he left Khimki and moved to Greek club

Panserraikos Panserraikos Football Club (), the ''All-Serres Football Club'', is a Greece, Greek Association football, football club based in Serres in Central Macedonia, Greece. Panserraikos is one of the most important and well-supported clubs in northern G ...

. After a short spell in Greece, he signed for

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, spending a season there before moving on yet again to play in Israel. In April 2012 Čeh signed for PSMS Medan (ISL) of the

Indonesia Super League Liga 1 (), officially known as BRI Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons, is the men's top professional association football, football division of the Indonesian football league system. Administered by Liga Indonesia Baru, PT Liga Indonesia Baru (), Li ...

. His debut match was on 9 April, where he came on in the 53rd minute replacing Muhammad Antoni; he also received his first yellow card on that match.

International career

Čeh made his debut for

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

in an October 2001 World Cup qualification match against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

with him immediately scoring a brace, and earned a total of 46 caps, scoring 6 goals. He made two appearances for the national team during the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, both times coming on as a substitute. His final international was a June 2007 European Championship qualification match away against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Controversies

In April 2011, it was revealed by the Slovenian media that

police department was, for the past six months, investigating an illegal betting organization and six individuals, four of which were from the Maribor area and had already been taken into custody. The Police also revealed that two other collaborators were still at large and that one of those was

Goran Šukalo Goran Šukalo (born 24 August 1981) is a Slovenian former footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Šukalo moved to Greuther Fürth in June 2013 on a free transfer. He moved to 1860 Munich on 1 February 2016. His contract was mutually ...

. Šukalo categorically denied his involvement in the matter and revealed that another football player, Nastja Čeh, was still owing him €73,000 and was avoiding payment. Allegedly this was the reason why Čeh pawned his property near

Ptuj Ptuj (; , ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, eighth-largest town of Slovenia, located in the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria (northeastern Slovenia). It is the seat of the City Municipality of Ptuj, Municipality of Pt ...

to Kosta Turner, which was visible from the official real estate papers. In January 2012, the general

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

on the District Court in Maribor proposed an indictment of six individuals, ring leaders of the illegal betting organization, in light of new evidence against them. The organization allegedly accepted a total of €43 million of bets, with €2.53 million being placed by Čeh.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Maribor *

Slovenian First League The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

: 1999–2000, 2000–01 Club Brugge *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 2002–03, 2004–05 *

: 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 * Belgian Supercup: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Austria Wien *

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 2005–06 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 2005–06

References

External links