Milan Baros
Biography
Milan Baroš was born on 28th October 1981 in Vigantice, Czech Republic. He is a Czech international footballer and currently plays for club side Aston Villa FC in the English Premiership.
To date he has been capped 50 times by his country, scoring a staggering 27 goals! A quite exceptional strike rate!
Before joining Aston Villa he previously played for FC Baník Ostrava (gaining the nickname Ostrava's Maradona) and Liverpool FC (where he lifted (and reputedly dropped) the European Champion's League Trophy).
Milan is an explosive striker with blistering pace who can split defences in two.
Striker!
Czech Republic
Baroš represented the Czechs in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and his first full international debut came in 2001 against Belgium he marked the occasion with a goal.
At the 2004 European Football Championship, Baroš won the golden boot for his goals against Latvia (1), The Netherlands (1) Germany (1) and Denmark (2), finishing the tournament with five goals.
Disappointment followed at the 2006 World Cup, where a persistent foot injury kept him out of games against U.S.A and Ghana.
He is considered to be one of the sharpest forwards in International football, and much will be expected of him in the 2008 European Championship qualification matches.
Liverpool
Milan signed for Liverpool in the summer of 2001 but had to wait until December to be granted a work permit
Baroš had a difficult start to footballing life at Liverpool. His success at International level brought with it expectation at club level. This coupled with the injury suffered by Djibril Cissé and the later sale of Michael Owen to Real Madrid added to pressure on Baroš to score goals.
In the second half of 2004-05 season, Baroš found it difficult to find his top form despite being the Liverpool's joint top scorer with thirteen goals, he only managed two between January and the end of the season in May.
The highlight of his Liverpool career was celebrating the remarkable 2005 Champions League win.
Aston Villa
Despite his champion's league success, on the 23 August 2005, Baroš was sold to Aston Villa for a fee of Ł6.5 million, plus a further Ł0.5m payable after 50 appearances.
He wore the Number 10 shirt alongside lookalike Juan Pablo Angel (Number 9).
He got off to a great start for Villa scoring just ten minutes into his debut, against Blackburn Rovers.
The season was very much stop start for Milan as he suffered a succession of niggling injuries.
The arrival of a new manager in the shape of highly rated ex-Celtic Manager Martin O'Neil and the successful club takeover by American multi-millionaire Randy Lerner gave the club and fans a real lift.
However the new era at Villa didnt prove successful for Milan as he simply could not score. He began the season as first-choice striker under the alongside Juan Pablo Angel but he soon got injured and lost his place to Luke Moore and the emerging Gabriel Agbonlahor.
He finally opened his account for the season on December 11 with a close range equaliser against Sheffield United in a 2-2 draw. This didn't prove good enough and he was soon dropped from the squad altogether. His final goal for Aston Villa in a 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup and he was sold to Lyon in a part exchange deal for John Carew.
He finished his Aston Villa career with 14 goals from 51 appearances.
Lyon
Baroš signed was reunited at Lyon with former manager Gérard Houllier from his time at Liverpool making his Ligue 1 debut against Bordeaux.
Following the departure of Gérard Houllier, Baroš played significantly less under new manager Alain Perrin in the 2007/8 season. To make matters worse on November 1, Baroš was arrested in France while driving at 271 km/h in his black Ferrari F430, on a freeway limited to 130 km/h.
The local authorities said the radar reading of 271km/h (168.4mph) was the fastest speed ever recorded in the region, beating the 248km/h (154mph) set by a motorcyclist in 2000. As a result, Baroš had his car and licence confiscated, had to take a taxi back to Lyon.
In the pending court case, his driving licence may be suspended for up to three years and he will have to pay a significant fine if found guilty.
Portsmouth
On 27 January 2008, Baros completed a loan signing with Portsmouth F.C. until the end of the 2007/2008 season. Milan made his debut against Manchester United on 30 January 2008 and assisting fellow new signing Defoe for the equaliser against Chelsea on Feb 2nd.
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