Miroslav Stoch

Miroslav Stoch (born 19 October 1989 in Nitra) is a Slovakian professional football player who plays mainly as an attacking midfielder or winger. He is currently playing for Chelsea of the English Premier League, splitting time between the first-team and the reserves.

Early life and career

As a child he was rarely seen without a football. His father realized his talent at an early age and placed him with his local club's academy FC Nitra. Miňo, as his family calls him, developed his goal-scoring abilities by arriving on the training pitch earlier than his teammates and practicing his shooting.

FC Nitra

His hard work paid off as he was drafted into Nitra's first team after scoring a hat-trick in an under-17 match, though he was only 15 at the time, and, due to age restrictions in the Slovakian league, he could not play until his 16th birthday. He made his first-team debut at the age of 16 and by this time he was already being watched by European scouts.

Chelsea

Chelsea had scouts in one of the international competitions he played in and offered him a trial around the same time that OGC Nice was about to sign him. He duly impressed and was signed by Chelsea's youth academy in 2006. He was a regular for the Under-18s in the 2006–07 season and scored 11 goals. He ended the season as top scorer for the under-18s even though he had always played on the wing. He started the 2007–08 season well and quickly progressed to the reserve team. Stoch bases his game on his two footballing idols—Ronaldinho and Ronaldo—and tries to emulate them on the pitch.

Stoch himself stated that he was close to making his first-team debut and hoped to do so during the course of the 2007–08 season although he did not. Stoch finally made his first appearance as a substitute on 30 November 2008 against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. He replaced Deco after 80 minutes. Chelsea lost the game 1-2. Stoch made his second appearance for the first-team, replacing Jon Obi Mikel in the 82nd minute, in Chelsea's 2-1 comeback win over Stoke City, playing a major part in the lead up to Chelsea's second goal. Stoch came on for Jon Obi Mikel against Watford in the FA Cup 5th round with Chelsea 1-0 down with 20 minutes. The game finished 3-1 to Chelsea with Stoch playing a fairly major role as he won the corner which led to the equalising goal from Nicolas Anelka.

International career

Stoch made his senior début for Slovakia on 10 February 2009 against Ukraine, where he came on in the 70th minute. His second appearance came just 24 hours later against Cyprus.