FC Nitra

Slovak football club

FC Nitra is a Slovak association football club, playing in the town of Nitra. Established in 1909, FC Nitra is one of the oldest football clubs in Slovakia.

Nitra were promoted and relegated 4 times from the Czechoslovak First League with their longest stay being 5 years (1979–1984, 1986–1991). Nitra came close to clinching the title in 1962 only to lose out by 3 points to Dukla Prague. This year was most successful in club history because they reached also Mitropa Cup final. Another successful period was end of 80s when Nitra stayed on top positions in Czechoslovak First League (in 1989 they reached 3rd place) with players like Michal Hipp, Ľubomír Moravčík, Ladislav Molnár, Peter Palúch, Jozef Majoroš, Róbert Tomaschek, Miroslav Sovič. FC Nitra was the first football professional club in the former Czechoslovakia.

Nitra was involved in the inaugural Slovakian championship in 1994 but was relegated to the second division after their first season. The following season they were promoted back to the first division, only for the same fate to occur and were again relegated. Roller coaster seasons became somewhat of an FC Nitra speciality during the early 90s, until the promotions stopped in 2001 where fans had to wait five long seasons before seeing their club again return to the top flight where they finished with a respectable fifth place. This was mainly due to the work of head coach Ivan Galád, who took control of the team in the winter of 2004, guiding the team to a fourth place finish in the second division. Róbert Rák became the top goal scorer both in the second division in the 2004/2005 season and (together with Erik Jendrišek) in the first division in the 2005/2006 season. In the beginning of the next season he was transferred to MFK Ružomberok. Galád coached the team very defensively (as according to his words no good striker was in the team). Galád lost his job after not much good results of the team at the end of 2006/2007 season (many losses and draws). The former Czech player Pavel Hapal was named as the head coach of the team for the 2007/2008 season. His way of coaching brought almost immediately very good results and the team finished 3rd (the best in the history of the club). After the season Hapal decided to leave the club to accept an offer from the top Czech club FK Mladá Boleslav. Pavel Malura, another coach from the Czech Republic, has taken the job. In spring 2009 the new manager Petar Kurčubić was appointed. In 2021 after the club was relegated from the top flight, they did not obtain a licence for the league below and so were further demoted another level.

Season Competition Round Country Club Home Away Aggregate1961–62Mitropa CupGroupSlovnaft Bratislava 4–3 Torino 5–1 SV Stickstoff 4–4 Semi FinalsUdinese4–31–15–4FinalsBologna2–20–32–5 1989–90 UEFA CupR11. FC Köln0–11–41–5 2006 Intertoto CupR1Grevenmacher 6–2 6–0 12–2R2Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 2–1 0–2 2–3 2008 Intertoto CupR1Neftchi Baku 3–1 0–2 3–3 (a) 2010–11 UEFA Europa LeagueQR1ETO Győr 2–2 1–3 3–5

#Nat. NameGoals 1 Róbert Rák 100 2 Michal Pucher 57 3 Dušan Borko 42 4 Matúš Paukner 38 5 Filip Balaj 32 6 Ľubomír Moravčík 30 Vladimír Ternény 7 Igor Klejch 29 Milan Lednický

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for FC Nitra. Past (and present) players who are the subjects of Wikipedia articles can be found here.