Marek Heinz

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Marek Heinz (born August 4, 1977 in Olomouc, Czech Republic) is a Czech football striker who is currently playing for FC Nantes.

Heinz previously played for Sigma Olomouc (1996-2000), Hamburg (2000-02), Arminia Bielefeld (2003), Baník Ostrava (2003-04), Borussia Mönchengladbach (2004-05) and Galatasaray SK (2005-06). For the Czech national team, he played in Euro 2004.

After joining Hamburg from Sigma Olomouc at the start of 2000-2001, Heinz was constantly failing to find his feet on club level. A surplus to requirement under Kurt Jara mid-way through the 2002-2003 season he joined Arminia Bielefeld for the remainder of the campaign. Heinz couldn't make himself a regular at Bielefeld, watching his side slumping to relegation from the Bundesliga. Not bought by them and released by Hamburg after that he joined Baník Ostrava and enjoyed a fantastic run during 2003-2004, leading Ostrava to the Czech title and ending up topscorer of the Czech league himself. That made Mönchengladbach being interested in picking him up. After a few other options had not worked out, Mönchengladbach moved to sign him in August 2004. Not used in the his best position for most of his first months with the former UEFA Cup winner, Heinz' stay was hampered by a change of manager from Holger Fach to Dutchman Dick Advocaat. With Advocaat reluctant to accept Heinz' ineffectiveness in terms of scoring his days at Mönchengladbach were numbered. Even a further change of manager, from Advocaat to Horst Köppel, couldn't change fortunes for the Olomouc-born and though Borussia Mönchengladbach was rather delighted he accepted a challenge offered by Galatasaray SK of Turkey in August 2005.

In 2005, Heinz scored two crucial goals for his country and club. He first helped Galatasaray to a 4-1 win over rivals Trabzonspor in October, before he scored the all important third goal against Finland which sent the Czechs into the World Cup 2006 held in Germany.

In September 2006, he signed a one-year contract with AS Saint-Étienne after being released by Galatasaray in time, hoping to finally making an impact on club-level outside the Czech Republic. In August 2007, he signed with FC Nantes.

[edit] See also

• Bad luck

[edit] References

• (Czech) ČMFS entry

v • d • e 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