Martin Valjent

Martin Valjent
Personal information
Full name Martin Valjent[1]
Date of birth (1995-12-11) 11 December 1995 (age 28)
Place of birth Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Centre-back
Team information
Current team
 Mallorca
Number 24
Youth career
Dubnica
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2012–2013 Dubnica 14 (0)
2013–2017 Ternana 76 (2)
2017–2019 Chievo 0 (0)
2017–2018 → Ternana (loan) 38 (3)
2018–2019 → Mallorca (loan) 29 (0)
2019– Mallorca 109 (1)
International career‡
2013 Slovakia U18
2014 Slovakia U19 14 (2)
2015–2017 Slovakia U21 19 (2)
2018– Slovakia 12 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 18 September 2023 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18:05, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Martin Valjent (born 11 December 1995) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Mallorca and the Slovakia national team.[2]

Club career

Ternana Calcio

Valjent made his professional debut for Ternana[3] against Varese on 28 September 2013.

Chievo Verona

In 2017, the defender signed for Chievo Verona just to be sent on loan to his former club for the 2017/18 season.

Mallorca

In August 2018, Valjent moved on loan to Mallorca to reinforce the Balearic defense during the 2018–19 Segunda División campaign.[4] On 26 June 2019, following Mallorca’s promotion to La Liga, the club exercised the option to buy the Slovak for €1.5 million.[5]

International career

Valjent was first called up to the Slovakia national team by Ján Kozák sr. for a double fixture against Netherlands and Morocco on 31 May and 4 June respectively. He was additionally nominated as a result of Gyömbér's (rescheduled club fixture) and Štetina's (injury) unavailability. Although Valjent was benched in the home fixture against Netherlands (1–1), he replaced Tomáš Hubočan in the 79th minute of the fixture against Morocco in Geneva, to mark his debut in Slovakia's senior national team. He was fielded when the score was 1–2 and Slovakia failed to equalize the game.

His first competitive start came in a Euro 2020 qualifying fixture against Croatia on 6 September 2019 in Trnava, with Valjent playing as a right-back. Slovakia lost the game 4–0.[6] It was noted, that Valjent had a difficult task in defending Dejan Lovren at the side-line, as his preferred post is the one of a centre-back.[7] In October, Valjent returned to the national team in a friendly against Paraguay on his preferred post. This time his performance was reported on very positively, receiving praise from RTVS' commentary expert Marián Zeman during the farewell game for Martin Škrtel, with whom he starred in the starting XI, as well as Hubočan and Adam Nemec. This game also coincided with a return to Tehelné pole after some ten years and concluded with a 1–1 tie.[8]

On 26 August 2020, the Mallorca defender was called up by the Slovakia national team to take part in the two opening matches of the UEFA Nations League against Czech Republic and Israel.[9]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 27 August 2021[10]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Dubnica 2012–13[11] 2. liga 14 0 — — 14 0
Ternana 2013–14 Serie B 6 0 0 0 — 6 0
2014–15 Serie B 35 0 2 0 — 37 0
2015–16 Serie B 25 2 2 0 — 27 2
2016–17 Serie B 33 0 2 0 — 35 0
Total 76 2 6 0 0 0 82 2
Chievo 2018–19 Serie A 0 0 0 0 — 0 0
Ternana (loan) 2017–18 Serie B 38 3 1 0 — 39 3
Mallorca (loan) 2018–19 Segunda División 29 0 2 0 4[a] 0 35 0
Mallorca 2019–20 La Liga 36 0 1 0 — 37 0
2020–21 Segunda División 33 1 1 0 — 34 1
2021–22 La Liga 3 0 0 0 — 3 0
Total 101 1 4 0 4 0 109 1
Career total 229 6 11 0 4 0 244 6
  1. ^ Appearance(s) in Promotion Playoffs

International

As of match played 10 June 2022[11]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Slovakia 2018 1 0
2019 2 0
2020 5 0
2021 1 0
2022 3 0
Total 12 0

References

  1. ^ "Acta del Partido celebrado el 14 de agosto de 2021, en Palma de Mallorca" [Minutes of the Match held on 14 August 2021, in Palma de Mallorca] (in Spanish). Royal Spanish Football Federation. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Martin Valjent player profile". (official website).
  3. ^ VARESE VS. TERNANA 2 - 1 28 September 2013, soccerway.com
  4. ^ "Martin Valjent moves on loan to Mallorca". 20 August 2018.
  5. ^ "Mallorca exercises buy option for Martin Valjent".
  6. ^ a.s, Petit Press. "Slovenským futbalistom sa vzdialil postup na ME, s Chorvátmi vysoko prehrali". sport.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  7. ^ a.s, Petit Press. "Vavro pôsobil ako malý žiak. Azda zápas nevidel tréner Lazia". sport.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  8. ^ a.s, Petit Press. "Slováci v príprave remizovali s Paraguajom, s reprezentáciou sa rozlúčila trojica hráčov". sport.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  9. ^ "Martin Valjent called up by the Slovak squad". 26 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  10. ^ Martin Valjent at Soccerway
  11. ^ a b Martin Valjent at National-Football-Teams.com

External links