Milan Baros (born 28 October 1981 in Vigantice, Czech Republic)
is a Czech international footballer. As of early 2005, he has
been capped 35 times, scoring 21 goals. He is a striker who
currently plays for Liverpool FC; his previous club was FC Baník
Ostrava, where he had 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 victory over Latvia by the score
2:1. 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 2 goal lead over the Czechs
until the 22nd minute, when Jan Koller headed in Karel
Poborsky's corner kick to give the Czech's first goal, 2-1. The
Czechs went on to win that game. The last was a game-winning
goal against Germany. Baros and Dutch star Ruud van Nistelrooy
were the only two players in the tournament to score in all
three of their group matches.
Baros 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 seems to have
finally hit his best form for his club - something he was unable
to do under the previous Liverpool manager. The lack of
attacking players in the current squad, exacerbated by a
season-long injury to Djibril Cissé, means that there is even
more pressure on Baros to score goals. |
