Profile of Milan Baros on Famous Like Me

Milan Baroš (born 28 October 1981 in Vigantice, Czech Republic) is a Czech international footballer. As of 21 September 2005, he has been capped thirty nine times, scoring twenty six 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 F.C.. He has previously played for Liverpool and FC Baník Ostrava, where he earned the nickname Ostrava's Maradona.

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 04/05 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 Rafa 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.

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.

Honours

• 2002/03 League Cup
• 2004/05 UEFA Champions League

External link

• Official website (in Czech)

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