Milan Baroš

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Milan Baroš
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Personal information
Date of birth	October 28, 1981 (age 25)
Place of birth	Vigantice, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0.5 in)
Nickname	Bari, Ostrava's Maradona, Milanesa
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Aston Villa
Number	10
Youth clubs
1987-91 1991-93 1993-98	FC Vigantice RK Rožnov p. Radhoštěm FC Baník Ostrava
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1998-2001 2002-2005 2005-	FC Baník Ostrava Liverpool F.C. Aston Villa	76 (23) 68 (19) 30 (12)
National team**
2001-	Czech Republic	51 (29)
* Professional club appearances and  goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 23, 2006. ** National team caps and  goals correct as of October 10, 2006.

Milan Baroš (born 28 October 1981 in Vigantice, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is  a Czech international footballer. As of 9 July 2006, he has been capped 51 times, scoring 29 goals: an  exceptional international strike rate, which his achievements in club football do not yet match. He is  a striker who currently plays for Aston Villa. He has previously played for Liverpool and  FC Baník Ostrava, where he earned the nickname Ostrava's Maradona, an  explosive striker who could split defences in two.

At the 2004 European Football Championship, he 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 bundled home after a penetrating run from Baroš. 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.

After a difficult start at his new club, he seemed to have  hit his best form for his club early in the 2004-05 season—something he was unable to do under the previous Liverpool manager. A lack of attacking players in the current squad, exacerbated by a season-long injury to Djibril Cissé, meant that there was even more  pressure on Baroš to score goals.

Later in the 2004-05 season, Baroš found it  difficult to reproduce his international form for Liverpool and  despite being the club's joint top scorer with thirteen goals, he only managed two between the beginning of January to the end of the season. Also, his head-down running infuriated many fans and  had many of them calling for his departure.

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 31 August. 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 the types of elite 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. Incidentally, while celebrating Liverpool's 2005 Champions League win, Baroš is  said to have  dropped the trophy and  put a dent in it, but Liverpool decided not to mend it  [1].

On the 23 August 2005, after weeks of haggling between the two clubs, Baroš moved to fellow Premiership side Aston Villa for a fee of £6.5 million, plus a further £0.5m payable after fifty appearances. He signed a four-year contract and  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.

Baros has been the subject of speculation about his future at Villa Park, after reports claimed he had a buy-out clause in his contract which would enable him to leave the club in the summer of 2006. Villa subsequently confirmed the existence of a buy-out clause, thought to be set at around £15m. Following a disappointing season in which Villa finished 16th in the Premier League, Baros has reportedly attracted interest from Olympique Lyonnais, Hamburger SV, SL Benfica and  fellow English Premier League team Manchester City. Baros is  now happy at Aston Villa and  is looking forward to taking part in the Martin O'Neill revolution that is  being created at Villa Park, and  he looks as if he will be staying at Villa as O'Neill rates him highly.

At the 2006 World Cup, a persistent foot injury kept him out of games against U.S.A 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.

[edit] Honours

• 2002-03 League Cup
• 2004-05 UEFA Champions League
• 2005 F.I.F.A World Player of the Year

[edit] External links

• Official website (in Czech)
• soccernet profile
• Milan Baroš at the Internet Movie Database
• Milan Baroš career stats at Soccerbase

	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