Napoli footballer Marek Hamšík.
Bratislava – The best scorer of the Slovak national football team and the record holder in the number of starts for the national team, Marek Hamšík, will end his career after the season. The 35-year-old midfielder, now still a Trabzonspor player in the ongoing Turkish league, announced the decision on his website. He played football professionally for nineteen years.
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“Football was my love, passion and work, to which I always gave everything,” said Hamšík. “As a little boy, I only dreamed about this and imagined that one day I would have a successful football career at the highest level, and I fulfilled it to the letter.”
In his career, Hamšík played for Slovan Bratislava, Brescia, Naples, Chinese Talien, Gothenburg and from 2021 for Trabzonspor, with whom he won the Turkish title and the Super Cup last year. With Napoli, he won the Italian Cup twice and the Super Cup once, he was the team's captain and broke Diego Maradona's club record of 121 goals. >
He also wore the captain's armband in the national team, for which he played 136 matches and scored 26 goals. In 2010, he led the national team in its only participation at the World Cup in South Africa, where the Slovaks advanced to the round of 16. He also led the team to its first participation in Euro 2016. The holder of a record eight awards for the best Slovak footballer of the year said goodbye to his national team career last year, last playing in the November home warm-up against Chile (0:0).
“It was amazing nineteen years of professional career. More than seven hundred competitive matches, almost one hundred and forty duels for the national team. Many – many goals scored…” wrote Hamšík.
