Marek Mintál

Marek Mintál (born September 2, 1977, in Žilina) is a Slovakia national football team football (soccer) player, who currently plays for 1. FC Nuremberg.

He arrived there from the Slovakia club MŠK Žilina, with whom he won back-to-back Slovak championships in 2001–02 and 2002–03. This was also due to his scoring 20 (2001–02) and 21 (2002–03) goals respectively. With this number of goals he also became the Slovak top scorer in both seasons. Therefore he was capped for the Slovak national team for the first time on February 6, 2002. He has won 33 caps and scored 11 goals for the Slovak national team.

After the 2002–03 season, he was transferred to 1. FC Nuremberg for an alleged transfer fee of 100,000€ and an agreement that should Mintál be transferred again, MŠK Žilina would receive a portion of the transfer fee. His new club was playing in the Bundesliga (football) at this time. He continued his scoring run by scoring 18 goals and becoming the German second division's leading scorer and was a crucial part of Nuremberg's immediate promotion (sports). During that season, Mintál, an offensive midfielder, became widely regarded for his inconspicous style of play, which has led to him being called "Sniper" or "Ghost". In the following year, Mintál led the Bundesliga (football) in scoring with 24 goals, and helped Nuremberg stave off Promotion and relegation.

His continuous success in scoring goals has sparked rumours that he might be off to a bigger club during the 2005 summer break. He has been linked in transfer speculation with Liverpool F.C., Beşiktaş J.K., Villarreal CF and VfB Stuttgart. These rumours did not lead to a transfer and Mintal decided to stay at Nuremberg. However the following season should turn out to be disastrous for the Slovak striker who broke his foot twice in the span of five months. Thus, the offensive midfielder only played in four games and scored a single goal.

He celebrated his competitive comeback against Borussia Mönchengladbach when coming on as a substitute after 60 minutes. Two weeks later he also played for his country again, scoring two goals against Cyprus national football team. Later the same year he was troubled again by his broken foot and had to undergo surgery for a second time.

Marek Mintál won the German Cup (DFB Pokal) with 1. FC Nuremberg in the year 2007. In this game, he also scored a goal, during this match, he was injured by Fernando Meira, a Portuguese defender from VfB Stuttgart. 1. FC Nuremberg won the game 3:2 after extra time. He scored a brace in a UEFA Cup Match against AZ Alkmaar to keep their European dreams alive.

International goals