Róbert Vittek

Róbert Vittek (born 1 April 1982) is a Slovak former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Vittek began his career in the youth team of hometown club Slovan Bratislava in 1999.

He was then promoted to the first team for the 1999–2000 campaign.

While still a youth player, he signed a preliminary agreement with Real Madrid, but the move to Spain fell through due to injury.

He was 19 at the time and scored 19 goals for Slovan.

The next season, he played only three games, scoring twice.

Before moving to Germany, Vittek had a trial at Birmingham City and impressed the club enough that they made a move for him.

However, the move never materialized.

With 23 goals in 82 matches since 2001, Vittek is the second top scorer in the history of the Slovakia national football team.

He came to Nürnberg in 2003, while the club was still in the 2. Bundesliga, helping the team earn promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2004–05 campaign.

During the first half of the 2004–05 season, Vittek signed a long-term contract.

Vittek scored only five goals in the 2004–05 campaign, and the following year he failed to score in the first 17 matches before the winter break.

With the arrival of new coach Hans Meyer, however, he scored 16 goals in the final 16 games of the 2005–06 season.

He made league history in Spieltag 24 and 25, becoming the first Bundesliga player to score a combined six goals in two consecutive games.

In all, Vittek had five multi-goal games on the season, and his 16 goals were good for fifth place on the Bundesliga scoring charts.

Vittek's rise was mirrored by his team as 1.

FC Nürnberg rose from near-relegation to eighth place.

He established a new record by scoring six goals in a row without an intervening goal from another player in the last two games against MSV Duisburg and 1. FC Köln respectively.

In the next game, he scored two more goals against Werder Bremen, and just missed the league record of Lothar Emmerich and Tomislav Marić with four braces.

His 2005–06 performance made Vittek a sought-after player in European football.

Hamburger SV was the main Bundesliga club rumored to be courting Vittek.

Dynamo Kyiv offered a €10 million transfer fee for Vittek in June 2006, but Nürnberg rejected the offer.

Lokomotiv Moscow was also reported to have interest in Vittek's services.

The 2006–07 season was again a mixed season for Vittek as he just scored four goals in 24 games due to Markus Schroth and Ivan Saenko making the score sheet.

In December 2006, Vittek won the Slovak Footballer of the Year award.

He played only three game of the cup until the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal and returned only in the final, but stayed only on the bench which on 26 May 2007, Nürnberg won the DFB-Pokal beating VfB Stuttgart 3–1.

The 2007–08 season was a negative season for Vittek as he scored once in 17 games due to injury and lack of fitness.

On 24 July 2007, he scored two goals for Nürnberg in the DFB-Ligapokal, but his team lost 4–2 to Schalke 04.

On 5 August 2007, Vittek scored his first hat-trick since two seasons ago in the first round of DFB-Pokal in a 6–0 thrashing against Victoria Hamburg.

On 1 September 2007, Vittek received a red card for the first time in his Bundesliga career after a second bookable offense in a 1–1 draw against Energie Cottbus.

Despite his sending off, a few days later, Vittek was injured after suffering pain on his knee, resulting in him being out of action throughout the rest of 2007 and was expected not to be available until January despite the operation being a success.

After the injury time, his return was delayed due to the flu.

The long forced break was also responsible for the fact that he was never used in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup.

On 1 March 2008, Vittek began to make his first appearance for the club since his injury, coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 loss against Hannover 96 and 33 days later on 5 April, Vittek scored his first goal (and only goal) of the season in a 3–1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

The 2008–09 season was short-lived for Vittek before his move to Lille as he made two appearances and in his last match with a 2–1 loss against 1. FC Kaiserslautern provided an assist for Isaac Boakye to score the only goal in the game.

Struggling to get to previous form, he went to play to French club Lille for a reported €5.5 million in 2008, where he was awarded a contract until 2012.

On 31 August 2008, Vittek made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over Bordeaux and scored his first goal in a 3–0 win over Saint-Étienne three months later since making his debut.

He went on to help the club finally with a total of five goals in 26 games for the fifth place, and thus to qualify for the UEFA Europa League.

He played for Slovakia at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, scoring four goals.

During the season in October, Vittek signed a contract extension, keeping him until 2010 and this season began the decline for Vittek at Nürnberg.