Slovak international football goalkeeper

Martin Dúbravka ( slovak pronunciation : [ ˈmartin ˈduːbrawka ] ; born 15 January 1989 ) is a Slovak professional football player who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League golf club Newcastle United and the Slovakia national team .

early life [edit ]

As a child, Dúbravka enjoyed playing ice field hockey arsenic well as football, and could have moved into the former sport were it not for a branch injury he sustained when he was five years old. [ 4 ]

Club career [edit ]

early career [edit ]

Dúbravka made his first-team introduction in a 5–2 base acquire against Dubnica on 26 May 2009. In the adjacent season he played 26 Slovak Superliga games, finishing as a league champion. He became a inaugural choice after the transfer of Dušan Perniš in January 2010. He qualified with Žilina to the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League and played all 6 group games. He kept a clean sail in the play-off round against Sparta Prague. [ 5 ] On 30 January 2014, he signed a 3½-year deal with the danish Superliga golf club Esbjerg fB. [ 6 ] Dúbravka joined Slovan Liberec of the Czech First League in July 2016 on a annual compress. [ 7 ] [ 5 ] He joined Sparta Prague in June 2017, signing a three-year compress. [ 5 ]

newcastle United [edit ]

In January 2018, Newcastle United showed interest in Dúbravka, initially offering Sparta Prague a loan for €500,000, with an option to sign in the summer for €4.5 million. He finally joined the Premier League side on 31 January 2018, the final day of the winter transfer window on a half-year loanword batch, due to expire at the goal of 2017–18 temper. According to isport.cz, he joined the clubhouse for €2 million, with an option to sign in the summer for €4 million. [ 8 ] He made his debut on 11 February, playing a pivotal character and keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 win against Manchester United. [ 9 ] After a very successful lend spell, he signed permanently for Newcastle on 30 May 2018 for an undisclosed fee of around €5 million. [ 10 ] On 17 February 2019 in Durham, Dúbravka was recognised as the 2018 Player of the year by the North East Football Writers ‘ Association, joining the likes of Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan and Shay Given. He became the seventh goalkeeper to win the award, over its thirty-nine seasons. Dúbravka stated that he was happy to win the award because “ perplex players have won this trophy before ”. [ 11 ] FourFourTwo ranked Dúbravka as the twentieth best actor of the Premier League, in the 2018–19 temper. He was the highest rate goalkeeper, ahead of highly valued goalkeepers such as Alisson ( Liverpool ) and David de Gea ( Manchester United ). [ 12 ] While Dúbravka was ever present for Newcastle for the adjacent two seasons, he was largely replaced in the FA Cup and EFL Cup, by either Karl Darlow or Freddie Woodman. His performances during the 2019–20 season, saw him win the clubhouse ‘s Player of the Year award. [ 13 ] In August 2020, Dúbravka injured his ankle in a trail seance anterior to the starting signal of the 2020–21 season. [ 14 ] Darlow played in his absence and he returned to the bench for the club ‘s concluding peer of the year, a 0–0 draw with Liverpool. [ 15 ] On 9 January 2021, Dúbravka started his first match of the season, in a FA Cup extra-time loss to Arsenal. [ 16 ] On 27 February, Dúbravka started his first league catch of the temper in a 1–1 puff with Wolverhampton Wanderers. [ 17 ] Afterwards, he went on to make twelve more appearances in goal as Newcastle, despite having been in a relegation struggle for much of the season, finished in twelfth station. [ 18 ]

International career [edit ]

On 23 May 2014, Dúbravka made his debut for the Slovakia national football team in a 2–0 acquire over Montenegro. [ 19 ] In January 2017, he played his inaugural full game for the national team, having played 45 minutes in both of his previous matches. While he was benched against Uganda ( 3–1 loss ), on 12 January he was fielded in an unofficial friendly catch against Sweden in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Slovakia lost the game 6–0, despite merely trailing 1–0 at one-half time. This pit besides marked the first clock time Dúbravka conceded in the national team and he was besides Slovak captain for the game, being the most know with international football. [ 20 ] [ 21 ] He made his competitive debut in a 2018 FIFA World Cup modifier, against Lithuania ( 2–1 acquire ), on 10 June 2017, when the choose goalkeeper in the qualification, Matúš Kozáčik, was unavailable due to injury. He however achieved his beginning competitive clean sail on 1 September in a home qualifier against Slovenia. Slovakia won thanks to an 81st-minute goal by Adam Nemec. Just as in the previous ceiling, Dúbravka was chosen due to a prolong wound of Kozáčik. After Kozáčik ‘s come back to the police squad, Dúbravka remained the favored choice for the remaining matches against England, Scotland and Malta. In the match against Scotland, Dúbravka made a series of saves before he was ultimately beaten by an own goal from Martin Škrtel. [ 22 ] Dúbravka missed all the national team fixtures of 2020 due to injuries ruling him out of play during the fall of the year, he returned to the national team in March 2021, in a 0–0 pull back with Cyprus. He made celebrated saves in the moment half prevent and upset passing and received some praise for them, while the team received overall criticisms for the upset resultant role and the performance labelled as “ bore ”. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] He was named in Slovakia ‘s concluding police squad for UEFA Euro 2020, [ 25 ] where he played in all three group matches. Going into the match against Spain on 23 June, Slovakia had a reduce gamble to advance to the knockout stage as a third-placed team. Dúbravka started well, saving a penalty from Álvaro Morata in the one-twelfth minute. After a shoot from Pablo Sarabia hit the crossbar, he tried to tip the ball away and alternatively punched the ball into his own net. In doing so, he became the beginning goalkeeper in european Championship history, to save a punishment and score an own finish in the same match. Dúbravka would go on to concede four goals, as Spain won the equal 5–0. [ 26 ]

Ján Kozák ‘s resignation incident [edit ]

Dúbravka was called up for a double regular against Czech Republic and Sweden on 13 October and 16 October 2018, respectively. [ 27 ] He played the entirety of both games, but was besides involved in an incident, that had led to resignation of Ján Kozák, then Slovakia ‘s longest-serving and most successful bus, who introduced him to the national team. [ 28 ] Dúbravka violated the code of behave of national team players, along with Michal Šulla, Norbert Gyömbér, Ľubomír Šatka, Milan Škriniar, Vladimír Weiss and Stanislav Lobotka. On the nox of 13 October, after a 2–1 loss in Slovakia ‘s second gear UEFA Nations League regular and a bowler hat equal against the Czech Republic, they left the hotel and went out, missed the bedtime and violated the health policy, regarding regeneration and rehabilitation. They were allegedly discovered by Kozák at about midnight, admitting to the incident and apologising during the adjacent sidereal day. Kozák resigned from the national team during the good afternoon of 14 October, revealing the details of his decision in a iron conference on 18 October, to avoid distractions during the preparation for the fixture against Sweden, that was managed by his former assistant Štefan Tarkovič on a caretaker basis. Kozák cited his inability to work with such squad under these conditions as the primary reason, as about a third base of the team was concerned, including players, those Kozák described as crucial, with Dúbravka being a share of this group. President of SFZ, Ján Kováčik, said that the players will be punished by not receiving any fiscal rewards for future nominations and performances in the national team during the approaching qualification cycle. During the imperativeness league, Kozák besides revealed that Dúbravka had claimed “ difficult times at Newcastle ” as one of the reasons for his conduct. [ 29 ]

On 19 October, SFZ published Dúbravka ‘s official instruction. He acknowledged that missing the bedtime was a rape, but maintained that the rest was within norms. He accepted any sanctions and stressed that the behave was not aimed against Kozák, commenting that he regrets that Kozák did not accept an apology from the trespassers. He besides stated that Kozák ‘s resignation surprised him, because of the dear relations within the team. [ 30 ]

manner of shimmer [edit ]

Dúbravka is a third-generation goalkeeper : his father and grandfather besides played in the position. [ 31 ] Dúbravka has been dubbed the “ quintessential sweeper-keeper ” due to his “ outstanding footwork ” and he believes “ in modern football the custodian ‘s about like a libero. You need to play with the ball, not just kick it long ”. [ 31 ] Louise Taylor of The Guardian christened Dúbravka the “ loath keeper ” after he admitted his favorite position to play is correct wing ; he sometimes plays as an outfielder in coach and coaching staff have suggested that he switch to a midfield function. [ 31 ]

personal life [edit ]

Dubravka lives with his girlfriend Lucia, and his dog. [ 32 ] The match had their first child in March 2021. [ 33 ]

career statistics [edit ]

Dúbravka playing for Žilina in 2010

As of match played 23 May 2021[34]

International [edit ]

As of match played 14 November 2021.[35]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Slovakia 2014 1 0
2015 0 0
2016 1 0
2017 7 0
2018 7 0
2019 8 0
2020 0 0
2021 6 0
Total 30 0

Honours [edit ]

Žilina
Slovakia
Individual

References [edit ]