Stanislav Šesták

Slovakia

Šesták made his first football steps in Demjata, where he played one season in local club FK Demjata, in team U15. His parents took him to youth camp of 1. FC Tatran Prešov. This was his first step to professional football. Officially, Šesták started his career at Tatran Prešov. In December 2001, he moved to Slovan Bratislava. He only played two seasons in Bratislava and then moved on to MŠK Žilina in December 2003. In the 2005–06 season, Šesták took with 17 goals the fourth place in the top goalscorer list of the Slovak league. One year later his club MŠK Žilina won the Slovak championship. Šesták scored 15 goals in that season and was second in the Slovak top goalscorer list.

VfL Bochum

On 7 June 2007, Šesták joined German Bundesliga side VfL Bochum. He signed a four-year contract at the club until 2011. At Bochum he was expected to replace the Greek international Theofanis Gekas who, after winning the top scorer crown in the previous season, had been transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. Šesták made a total of 86 appearances for VfL Bochum and scored 28 goals (17 assists) during his three-year spell with the Ruhr valley outfit. In the 2007–08 season he was with 13 goals and 9 assists the third-best scorer in the league, behind Bayern Munich's Luca Toni and Werder Bremen's Diego. On 11 April 2009, Šesták marked within 27 minutes against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim a hat-trick (due to the half-time break between the first two goals, however, it could be…

Šesták began his youth career in 2000. During his youth career he was a member of Slovak under-18 and under-21 national teams. On 18 August 2004, Šesták debuted for the Slovak senior national team in a 3-1 victory over Luxembourg, coming on as a substitute for Szilárd Németh for the last six minutes of the game. Šesták scored his first senior international goals against San Marino on 13 October 2007. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, Šesták became the top scorer of his team with 6 goals in 6 matches and helped to qualify for Slovakia's first major tournament ever. On 15 October 2008, he scored two quick goals in the closing minutes against Poland to turn the game around from 0–1. Šesták also scored the first goal in a match against the Czech Republic on 1 April 2009. As a part of the Slovak squad at 2010 FIFA World Cup, he played in every match of Slovakia in the group stage. During the era of coaching duo Griga and Hipp, Šesták was mostly ignored by them and was nominated only for one friendly match against Poland on 26 May 2012, where he played in the first 57 minutes. On 14 August 2013, Šesták returned to international football under the new coach of Slovak national team Ján Kozák, scoring a goal in a 1–1 away draw with Romania. He also helped his country to qualify for their first UEFA European Championship in 2016. He has appeared in three matches during their successful qualification campaign and scored a game-closing goal against Belarus on 12…

At the end of April 2017, Šesták was appointed playing caretaker manager of FK Poprad until the end of the season. He continued as a part of the staff for the 2017-18 season, functioning as a playing assistant manager. In the summer 2019, he retired from professional football and was instead hired as sporting director of FK Poprad. He also returned to play for his former youth club FK Demjata.

Šesták is married to his wife Milka Šestáková. The couple has three children. In December 2022, Šesták's family home in Demjata burned down.