Marek Hamšík

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

Early Career

Despite the fact that Hamšík grew up in Banská Bystrica, he never played for major local team Dukla Banská Bystrica. Instead he began playing for a small youth team Jupie Podlavice. 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. His first match in Serie A with Brescia was against Chievo Verona on 20 March 2005 when he was 17 years and 237 days old. Later in that season, Brescia finished 19th in the Serie A league and were relegated to the Serie B. In 2005–06, he played 24 league matches for Brescia in Serie B, with Brescia finishing tenth. 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 that Hamšík had signed a five-year contract with them. The transfer cost Napoli €5.5 million. The president of the club De Laurentiis described him as a player who should be closely watched in the future.

He played his first major match with 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. He scored his first goal in the Serie A on 16 September 2007 in the match against Sampdoria.

His football icon is Czech midfielder Pavel Nedvěd. In 2007 he was voted the second best Slovak footballer of the year (after Martin Škrtel) and also he was voted the best young Slovak footballer (The Peter Dubovský Trophy). Hamšík ended his first season with Napoli as the club's top scorer, with nine 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.In 2009 he was again runner-up as best Slovak footballer of the year and repeated his success as the best young Slovak footballer. On 19 September 2010, Hamsik scored Napoli's first goal as they came back from a goal down to defeat Sampdoria 2-1 in Genoa. Following this on 23 September, Hamsik signed a three-year contract extension on his contract that ties him with the club until June 2015. Three days later Hamsik scored his second goal of the new season with an 81' minute penalty to earn Napoli a 4-1 comeback win away to newly promoted Cesena. The 2010-11 season was very productive for Hamsik as he helped lead Napoli to a very successful season and earn automatic qualification into the Champions League by finishing third in Serie A. Hamsik played in 36 of the 38 Serie A games that season, netting 11 goals and contributing with a further six assists. Hamsik scored the winning goal in their 2-0 home victory over Villarreal on 27 September, earning Napoli their first ever victory in the UEFA Champions League. He provided an assist for Gökhan Inler's opening goal against Villareall on 7 December and then scored the decisive goal, helping Napoli to a 2-0 victory in Spain. The win secured qualification to the Round of 16 in a very difficult group, that also included Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Hamsik helped Napoli finish the first half of the 2011-12 campaign on a high, netting a superb goal in their 6-1 hammering of Genoa on 21 December.Hamsik also provided assists for strikes by Goran Pandev and Walter Gargano during the game. Through the first half of the 2011-12 campaign, Hamsik had appeared in 16 Serie A games, contributing with both five goals and five assists. In their European campaign, Hamsik appeared in all six group stage matches and contributed with two goals and an assist.

International Career

Hamšík represented Slovakia at junior level, playing in the UEFA Under-17 European Championships qualifiers  and the UEFA Under-19 European Championships. 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 in the friendly match against Poland which ended 2–2. He played his second match against Germany in the Euro 2008 qualification, which Slovakia lost 2–1. 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.