Michael Mifsud

Michael Mifsud (born 17 April 1981) is a Maltese former professional footballer.

He made his debut during the 1997–98 season.

In his first season, Mifsud made six appearances and scored once, helping Sliema Wanderers to a third-place finish in the Maltese Premier League.

The 1998–99 season saw Mifsud make the breakthrough and become a first-team regular.

He was quickly becoming one of the hottest properties in Maltese football.

He made 23 appearances and scored eight goals, as Sliema Wanderers again recorded a third-place finish in the Maltese Premier League.

Mifsud's form the previous season led to a trial with English giants Manchester United in July 1999.

However, the trial did not lead to a permanent move and Mifsud returned to Sliema Wanderers for the 1999–2000 season.

The failure to secure the move to Manchester United did not affect Mifsud, who was in fine goalscoring form for Sliema Wanderers, netting 21 times in 28 outings.

The club finished in fourth position in the Maltese Premier League that season.

He scored 42 goals in 143 games for the Malta national team between 2000 and 2020, and also captained the side.

With interest in Mifsud growing, the 2000–01 season proved to be his last with the club.

Mifsud helped the club to a second-place finish in the Maltese Premier League, making 25 appearances and scoring an impressive 20 goals.

He was voted Maltese Sportsperson of the Year in 2001 and 2003.

Born in Pietà, Mifsud is a youth product of Sliema Wanderers.

His form earned him his first call-up to the national team, and this alerted the Bundesliga club 1. FC Kaiserslautern to his potential and he signed for the club in the summer of 2001.

He was a regular scorer with the B team in the Regionalliga which was the third league in Germany back then, he also made some appearances for the senior team in the Bundesliga, scoring two goals.

Mifsud failed to make the grade with Kaiserslautern A team and his wish for regular first-team football meant he was released in the winter of 2004.

He re-signed for Sliema Wanderers for the remainder of the 2004–05 season.

Mifsud went on to make 12 appearances and score eight goals, helping Sliema Wanderers to retain the Maltese Premier League title.

In the summer of 2005, he was snapped up by Norwegian Premier League club Lillestrøm, where he was at one stage voted the best foreign player in the league.

He was the club's top scorer in the 2006 season with 11 goals in 19 appearances.

On 5 November 2006, the last day of the Norwegian League, he declared that he had set his heart on a move to one of the top European leagues.

The previous summer, Lillestrøm had turned down an offer for Mifsud from English club Coventry City despite knowing that the striker would be able to move for free in January 2007 as his contract was due to run out at the end of December.

He declined to renew his contract with Lillestrøm to fulfil his wish to turn out for a club in a major European league.

Mifsud was spotted by the ex-manager of Coventry City, Micky Adams, as he was looking for new strikers in Norway.

On 10 January 2007, Mifsud signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Coventry City in the Football League Championship in England.

However, Adams was sacked two days later.

Mifsud made his début for Coventry City on 13 January 2007 in a Football League Championship match at home to Crystal Palace.

Mifsud scored his first goal for Coventry City on 22 January 2007, after coming on as a substitute in an away game against Plymouth Argyle.

He then scored his second goal for Coventry in 4–1 defeat of Barnsley.

He also scored at Turf Moor on 6 May 2007 against Burnley.

During another impressive display, he scored a goal against Sheffield Wednesday and won the goal of the season for Coventry City.

In the third round of the 2007–08 League Cup, on 26 September 2007, Mifsud scored two goals to give Coventry City an unexpected 2–0 victory over Premier League champions, Manchester United, his boyhood team, at Old Trafford.

La Gazzetta dello Sport nicknamed him as Il Messi Di Malta after the match.

After this success, Mifsud continued to excel.

He was instrumental in Coventry City's draw with Charlton Athletic on 29 September 2007, scoring his third goal in two games.

On 2 October 2007, Coventry City secured a 3–1 league win against Blackpool, the second goal again coming from Mifsud.

In this same match, Mifsud was fouled in the box and the resultant penalty was scored by Coventry City's Michael Doyle.

Furthermore, Blackpool's Kaspars Gorkšs was shown the red card for a foul on Dele Adebola, after a Mifsud through ball.