Marek Hamšík

Date of birth	27 July 1987 (1987-07-27) (age 23)
Place of birth	Banská Bystrica, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder, Playmaker

Marek Hamšík (born 27 July 1987) is a Slovak football midfielder who currently plays for Serie A club Napoli and captains the Slovakia national team

Club career

Early career

Although Hamšík grew up in Banská Bystrica, he never played for their major team Dukla Banská Bystrica. He instead began playing for small youth team Jupie Podlavice.^[1] In 2002 he signed with a major Slovak team Slovan Bratislava. He played once for the Slovan A-team and scored a goal.
He moved from Slovan to Brescia in 2004 as a 17 year old young talent at a transfer fee of €500,000.^[2] His first match in Serie A with Brescia was against Chievo Verona in 20 March 2005 at the age of 17 years and 237 days.^[2] Later that season, Brescia finished 19th in the Serie A league and was relegated to the Serie B. In 2005–06, he played 24 league matches for Brescia in Serie B, with Brescia finishing 10th. He had an impressive 2006–07 season, scoring 10 goals in 40 matches.

Napoli

On 28 June 2007 newly-promoted Serie A club Napoli announced Hamšík had signed a five-year contract with them.^[3] The transfer cost Napoli €5.5 million. The president of the club De Laurentiis described him as a player to look out for in the future.^[4]
He played his first major match for Napoli against Cesena in the first round of the Italian Cup. Napoli won 4–0, Hamšík made the opening goal and scored the second himself.^[5] He scored his first goal in the Serie A on 16 September 2007 in the match against Sampdoria.^[6]
His football icon is Czech midfielder Pavel Nedvěd.^[7] In 2007 he was voted second best Slovak footballer of the year (behind Martin Škrtel) and was also voted best young Slovak footballer (The Peter Dubovský Trophy).^[8] Hamšík ended his first season with Napoli as the club's top scorer, with 9 goals from 37 games. At the start of the 2008/09 season, Hamšík scored in both of Napoli's first two games and went on to score a further 9 goals in his second season with the club, finishing as Napoli's top scorer for the second year running.^[9] In 2009 he was again runner-up as best Slovak footballer of the year^[10] and repeated his success as best young Slovak footballer.^[11]

International career

Hamšík represented Slovakia at junior level, playing in the UEFA Under-17 European Championships qualifiers ^[12] and the UEFA Under-19 European Championships.^[13] He played also for the Slovak U-21 national team.
He is a regular member of the Slovak national team. He made his debut on 7 February 2007^[14] in the friendly match against Poland which ended 2–2.^[15] He played his second match against Germany in the Euro 2008 qualification, which Slovakia lost 2–1.^[16] He has become the key member of the attack in the national team, usually playing as a left or central attacking midfielder. Hamsik captained his country in their first World Cup experience in South Africa 2010, where Slovakia was beaten by later finalist Netherlands in the first knockout stage match.