Martin Dúbravka

Martin Dúbravka (born 15 January 1989) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Newcastle United and the Slovakia national team.

In the 2009–10 Slovak Superliga he played 26 Slovak Superliga games, finishing as a league champion.

He became a first choice after the transfer of Dušan Perniš in January 2010.

He qualified with Žilina to the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League and played all 6 group games.

He kept a clean sheet in the play-off round against Sparta Prague.

Dúbravka represented Slovakia at under-21 level, before making his senior international debut in May 2014.

On 30 January 2014, he signed a 3½-year deal with the Danish Superliga club Esbjerg.

Dúbravka joined Slovan Liberec of the Czech First League in July 2016 on a one-year contract.

He joined Sparta Prague in June 2017, signing a three-year contract.

After playing in the top flights of Slovak, Danish and Czech football, Dúbravka joined English club Newcastle United in January 2018, initially on loan.

In January 2018, Newcastle United showed interest in Dúbravka, initially offering Sparta Prague a loan for €500,000, with an option to sign in the summer for €4.5 million.

He finally joined the Premier League side on 31 January 2018, the final day of the winter transfer window on a half-year loan deal, due to expire at the end of 2017–18 season.

According to isport.cz, he joined the club for €2 million, with an option to sign in the summer for €4 million.

He made his debut on 11 February, playing a pivotal role and keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 win against Manchester United.

After a very successful loan spell, he signed permanently for Newcastle on 30 May 2018 for an undisclosed fee of around €5 million.

FourFourTwo ranked Dúbravka as the twentieth best player of the Premier League, in the 2018–19 season.

He was the highest ranked goalkeeper, ahead of highly valued goalkeepers such as Alisson Becker (Liverpool) and David de Gea (Manchester United).

While Dúbravka was ever present for Newcastle for the next two seasons, he was mostly replaced in the FA Cup and EFL Cup, by either Karl Darlow or Freddie Woodman.

He won the club's Player of the Year award in the 2019–20 season.

He spent part of the 2022–23 season on loan at Manchester United, playing twice in their EFL Cup-winning campaign.

On 17 February 2019 in Durham, Dúbravka was recognised as the 2018 Player of the Year by the North East Football Writers' Association, joining the likes of Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan and Shay Given.

He became the seventh goalkeeper to win the award, over its thirty-nine seasons.

Dúbravka stated that he was happy to win the award because "amazing players have won this trophy before".

His performances during the 2019–20 season saw him win the club's Player of the Year award.

He started all three of Slovakia's games at UEFA Euro 2020.

As a child, Dúbravka enjoyed playing ice hockey as well as football, and could have moved into the former sport were it not for a leg injury he sustained when he was five years old.

In August 2020, Dúbravka injured his ankle in a training session prior to the start of the 2020–21 season.

Darlow played in his absence and he returned to the bench for the club's last match of the year, a 0–0 draw with Liverpool.

On 9 January 2021, Dúbravka started his first match of the season, in a FA Cup extra-time loss to Arsenal.

On 27 February, Dúbravka started his first league match of the season in a 1–1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Afterwards, he went on to make twelve more appearances in goal as Newcastle, despite having been in a relegation battle for much of the season, finished in twelfth place.

Dúbravka lost his place in the starting line-up to Nick Pope after the England international signed from Burnley.

On 1 September 2022, he joined Manchester United on a season-long loan from Newcastle.

On 3 September 2022, it was confirmed that he would wear the number 31 shirt last worn by Nemanja Matić.

He made his debut in Man United's 4–2 win over Aston Villa in the EFL Cup third round on 10 November 2022.

Newcastle recalled Dúbravka from the loan on 1 January 2023.

He made two appearances, both in the 2022–23 EFL Cup, keeping one clean sheet.

Dúbravka played in Newcastle's 2–1 FA Cup third round defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.

He made his first Premier League appearance since the last day of the previous season on 18 February 2023, replacing Elliot Anderson after Nick Pope was sent off for handling the ball outside the penalty area in the 2–0 home defeat to Liverpool.

Dúbravka was cup-tied for the 2023 EFL Cup final on 26 February, having played for Newcastle's opponents in the third and fourth rounds, which Manchester United won 2–0.