Milan Baroš

Milan Baroš
Personal information
Full name	Milan Baroš
Date of birth	28 October 1981 (1981-10-28) (age 28)
Place of birth	Valašské Meziříčí, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Galatasaray
Number	15
Youth clubs
1987–1991 1991–1993 1993–1998	FC Vigantice RK Rožnov p. Radhoštěm Baník Ostrava
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2001 2002–2005 2005–2007 2007–2008 2008 2008–	Baník Ostrava Liverpool Aston Villa Lyon → Portsmouth (loan) Galatasaray	76 (23) 68 (19) 42 0(9) 24 0(7) 12 0(0) 11 0(8)[1]
National team2
2001–	Czech Republic	67 (32)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 November 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 29 August 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Milan Baroš (born October 28, 1981 in Valašské Meziříčí, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is a Czech international footballer.

He is a striker who currently plays for Galatasaray. He was the winner of the Golden Boot at Euro 2004, where he scored 5 goals, and he has previously played for clubs including Liverpool, Aston Villa, and FC Baník Ostrava, where he earned the nickname Ostrava's Maradona^[2] (which he denies as nobody ever called him with this nickname^[3])

Club career

Liverpool

Baroš joined Liverpool F.C. in 2002, and was given the number 5 shirt, making his debut in a Champions League tie away to FC Barcelona. It was his only appearance of the 2001/02 season. The following season, Baroš scored twice on his Premiership debut away to Bolton Wanderers ^[4] and ended the season with 12 goals for the club. For the 2003/04 season Baroš was expected to feature more prominently but he broke his ankle in a match. He didn't play again for 6 months and scored just two goals all season. Baroš would later claim that had Houllier stayed at the club after the summer of 2004 he would have put in a transfer request. As it was Houllier was sacked and replaced by Rafa Benítez.

On returning from Euro 2004, where he had been the top goalscorer, Baroš hit his best form for his club early in the 2004/05 season. With Michael Owen and Emile Heskey now sold and new signing Djibril Cissé out with a long term injury Baroš was now seen as the club's senior striker. Despite being the club's joint top scorer with thirteen goals, including a hat trick against Crystal Palace, Baroš was surprisingly dropped for the Carling cup final defeat to Chelsea. However, he played an important role in Liverpool's run to the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, playing virtually all the games in the competition as a lone striker as the club clinched its fifth title. Baroš reportedly dropped the trophy during the team's celebration, leaving a dent, but Liverpool decided not to mend it because it added to the "character" of the trophy.^[5]

In June 2005, Baroš's future at Liverpool looked bleak, with the player seemingly poised to leave Liverpool to rejoin former manager Gérard Houllier at Lyon who had expressed interest in bringing him to France. Baroš, however, rejected the move, saying that he wanted to prove himself at Liverpool. It was widely reported, however, that Liverpool would try to sell Baroš before the transfer window closed on August 31. Adding fuel to these rumours was Liverpool's purchase of Peter Crouch from Southampton, along with the decision by manager Rafael Benítez not to play Baroš in any of Liverpool's Champions League qualifying-round ties. By not playing Baroš, Benítez assured that Baroš would not be cup-tied to Liverpool, Cup-tied players are considerably less valuable, especially to teams that could reasonably afford the transfer fee that Liverpool would likely require for Baroš. Indeed, two clubs that had already qualified for the group phase, Lyon and Schalke, strongly pursued Baroš, but he expressed a desire to stay in the Premiership or to move to Spain.

He played as a substitute in the first 2 games of Liverpool's 2005-2006 season but they were his last for the club. Baroš's name was still chanted from the crowd proving that despite his imminent departure he was a very popular player.

Aston Villa

Baroš moved to Premiership side Aston Villa for a fee of £6.5 million in August 2005, signing a four year contract.^[6]He was given the number 10 shirt. Just ten minutes into his Aston Villa debut, he scored the only goal in his new team's victory over Blackburn Rovers. He finished the season with 8 goals from 25 appearances. He also scored 3 goals in as many games in the FA Cup that season, as well as 1 goal from two League Cup appearances. But he never really won over the fans due to his perceived lack of effort on the playing field.

The following season proved to be a nightmare for Baros. He began the season as first-choice striker under Martin O'Neill and played alongside Juan Pablo Ángel but he soon got injured and lost his place to Luke Moore and the emerging Gabriel Agbonlahor. Boss Martin O'Neill challenged Baroš to prove himself before the January transfer window. He subsequently opened his account for the season on December 11 with a close range equaliser against Sheffield United in a 2-2 draw. This didn't prove good enough and he was soon dropped from the squad altogether. January was just around the corner and it seemed destined that Baroš would be leaving the club. Following his final goal for Aston Villa in a 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup he was sold to Lyon in a part exchange deal for John Carew.

He finished his Aston Villa career with 14 goals from 51 appearances.

Lyon

On January 22, 2007, Baroš signed with French side Lyon, reuniting with former manager Gérard Houllier from his time at Liverpool. The deal swapped Baroš with Lyon striker John Carew, who joined Aston Villa on a three-and-a-half-year deal. On January 24, 2007, he made his Lyon Ligue 1 debut against Bordeaux.

On April 18, 2007, during Lyon's match against Rennes, Baroš was accused of making a racist gesture towards his Cameroon-born opponent Stéphane Mbia. After having been fouled by Mbia several times, Baroš held his nose in front of Mbia and waved his hand as if to waft away an unpleasant smell. In the ensuing controversy, Baroš insisted that his gesture was not intended to be racist in any way, and he was only trying to tell Mbia to get out of his face and leave him alone. ^[7] On May 4, Baroš and Mbia were brought before an official disciplinary hearing of the LFP. The jury ruled that Baroš was innocent of racist behavior, but he was nevertheless suspended for the remainder of the season for unsportsmanlike conduct. ^[8]

Following the departure of Gérard Houllier, Baroš played significantly less under new manager Alain Perrin in the 2007/8 season. On November 1, Baroš was arrested in France while driving at 271 km/h in his black Ferrari F430, on a freeway limited to 130 km/h. Stopped by French Police between Lyon and Geneva in the region of Ain, the local authorities said the radar reading of 271km/h (168.4mph) was the fastest speed ever recorded in the region, beating the 248km/h (154mph) set by a motorcyclist in 2000. Allegedly, Baros claimed to the police that the reason he was going so fast was that he "wanted to hear what a Ferrari sounded like at 200km/h". As a result, Baroš had his car and licence confiscated, had to take a taxi back to Lyon. In the awaiting court case, his driving licence may be suspended for up to three years and he will have to pay a significant fine.^[9].

Portsmouth

On January 27, 2008, Baroš completed a loan signing that kept him at English side Portsmouth until the end of the 2007/2008 English Premier League season with a view to a permanent deal (7.000.000 €).^[10]. Baroš made his Portsmouth debut against Manchester United on January 30, 2008.

Baroš did not score in any of his 16 appearances (12 league, 4 cup) for Portsmouth but played a significant role in the club winning the 2008 FA Cup. He won Portsmouth's match-winning penalty kick in the quarter final at Manchester United and assisted Nwankwo Kanu's deciding goal in the semi final match against West Bromwich Albion with a suspected hand ball that went unnoticed by both the referee and his assistant. The final match of Baroš's loan spell was the 2008 FA Cup Final against Cardiff City at Wembley Stadium where he appeared as a substitute for Kanu in the 87th minute.

At the end of the season, Portsmouth decided against making Baroš' signing permanent, and he returned to Lyon.

Galatasaray

In August 2008, Baroš joined Turkish champions Galatasaray S.K. from Olympique Lyonnais for €5.5m, linking up with former Liverpool FC team-mate Harry Kewell.He played his first match against Kayserispor, playing the last 15 minutes.

Baroš scored his first goals as a double in the UEFA Cup 1st Round 1st Leg game against AC Bellinzona. Then in his first league start, he once again scored 2 goals against Kocaelispor, with Galatasaray going on to win the match 4-1. He scored a hattrick in the Turkish Super Lig game versus Hacettepe SK.

International career

At the 2004 European Football Championship, Baroš scored the first goal for the Czech Republic in their first game of the tournament, a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Latvia. He went on to score goals in the Czechs' other two group matches. His second goal was an equalizer against the Netherlands; the Dutch team had a two-goal lead over the Czechs until the 22nd minute, when Jan Koller scored from a Baroš pass. The Czechs went on to win that game. The last was a game-winning goal against Germany. Baroš and Dutch star Ruud van Nistelrooy were the only two players in the tournament to score in all three of their group matches.

Baroš added two goals in two minutes of the second half of the Czechs' quarterfinal win over Denmark, and finished as the tournament's Golden Boot with five goals.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a persistent foot injury kept him out of games against the United States and Ghana. He did appear in the Czech's final group game against Italy, but was considered unfit and was subsequently withdrawn after 65 minutes.

Despite being frequently stated to be only good for his country and not club, his form for his country has dropped sufficiently over the past few seasons.

During Euro 2008 Baroš suffered the indignity of receiving a yellow card during stoppage time in the match against Turkey even though he was neither playing in the match or even on the pitch at the time of his booking.

Career statistics

Honours

• Peace Cup: 2007
• Ligue 1: 2007
• Trophée des champions: 2007
• League Cup: 2003; Runner-up: 2005
• UEFA Champions League: 2005
• Charity Shield: Runner-up: 2002
• FA Cup: 2008

Personal awards

• UEFA Euro 2004 Golden Boot

References

External links

• Official website (Czech)
• Unofficial fansite
• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Milan Baroš career stats at Soccerbase
• Milan Baroš at the Internet Movie Database
• Profile at galatasaray.org (Turkish) (English)
• Profile at TFF.org (Turkish)
• Profile at transfermarkt.de (German)

Czech Republic squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 Čech • 2 Grygera • 3 Polák • 4 Galásek • 5 Kováč • 6 Jankulovski • 7 Sionko • 8 Fenin • 9 Koller • 10 Svěrkoš • 11 Vlček • 12 Pospěch • 13 Kadlec • 14 Jarolím • 15 Baroš • 16 Blažek • 17 Matějovský • 18 Sivok • 19 Skácel • 20 Plašil • 21 Ujfaluši • 22 Rozehnal • 23 Zítka • Coach: Brückner

Czech Republic squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Čech • 2 Grygera • 3 Mareš • 4 Galásek • 5 Kováč • 6 Jankulovski • 7 Sionko • 8 Poborský • 9 Koller • 10 Rosický • 11 Nedvěd • 12 Lokvenc • 13 Jiránek • 14 Jarolím • 15 Baroš • 16 Blažek • 17 Štajner • 18 Heinz • 19 Polák • 20 Plašil • 21 Ujfaluši • 22 Rozehnal • 23 Kinský • Coach: Brückner

Czech Republic squad – UEFA Euro 2004 semi-finalists 1 Čech • 2 Grygera • 3 Mareš • 4 Galásek • 5 Bolf • 6 Jankulovski • 7 Šmicer • 8 Poborský • 9 Koller • 10 Rosický • 11 Nedvěd • 12 Lokvenc • 13 Jiránek • 14 Vachoušek • 15 Baroš • 16 Blažek • 17 Hübschman • 18 Heinz • 19 Týce • 20 Plašil • 21 Ujfaluši • 22 Rozehnal • 23 Kinský • Coach: Brückner