Last season's finalists Chennaiyin FC have made quite a few striking changes to their foreign player contingent ahead of the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) season.
They have retained only two overseas players from last season and have brought in five new faces. Among them, the one who will be tasked with replacing the goals scored by Nerijus Valskis, who left for Jamshedpur FC, will be Jakub Sylvestr.
The Slovakian forward, who can play across the frontline, comes to India with the experience of plying his trade in a variety of European leagues including the top tiers in Slovakia, Croatia, Israel and Denmark.
He has also played for reputed German clubs like Nurnberg and Paderborn, though during a period when the clubs were in the German second division.
Trophy-laden start
The 31-year-old made his professional debut for Slovakian outfit Slovan Bratislava in the 2007-08 season before going out on a six-month loan to fellow Slovakian top-tier club Petrzalka in January 2009. However, he still won a Slovak Super Liga medal after Bratislava won the league that season.
He also scored for Bratislava in their UEFA Champions League second qualifying round match against Zrnjski. But the team could not qualify for the group stages of the European elite competition.
Next season, Sylvestr was an important part of the team and helped them win the Slovak Cup. He was soon spotted by Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb who brought him in for a deal worth €1.4 million.
He spent two seasons in Croatia. Though his goalscoring record was not very impressive, he played a part as the club won the league and cup double in both seasons.
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The striker subsequently moved to German second division club Erzgebirge Aue on loan from Zagreb in the 2012-13 season. A decent campaign where he scored eight league goals saw Erzgebirge make the move permanent. Sylvestr delivered for the club in the 2013-14 season, scoring 15 goals to become the top scorer of the German second division.
That performance saw FC Nurnberg splash almost €1.6 million to secure his services. He had a decent first season with Nurnberg before struggling for game time. And after a loan move to Paderborn SC, Sylvestr moved to Denmark to join Aalborg BK in January 2017.
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He had a fantastic start to his career in Danish Superliga, scoring on league debut and following it up with a hat-trick in the very next match. He was voted 'Player of the Month' in February 2017, thanks to those performances.
He would end up leaving Aalborg in January 2018 and spent time in Israel before moving to Chennaiyin FC.
International football
Sylvestr was a regular in the Slovakia U19 and U21 teams during his early years. He was impressive for the U21 team in the qualifying rounds for the 2011 UEFA U21 championship. He scored six goals in 10 matches during the qualifying but Slovakia could not make it into the final tournament.
Sylvestr made his debut for the Slovakia senior national team in a 2012 UEFA Euro qualifier against Macedonia as a 90th-minute substitute. The striker went on to make six appearances for Slovakia but is yet to score a goal for them.
His final appearance for Slovakia came in a friendly against Malta in 2014 where he played against former Chennaiyin forward Andre Schembri. He was on the bench, however, when Slovakia played England in a 2018 World Cup qualifier at Trnava, in September 2016. England won the match 1-0.
Last stint
For the last two-and-a-half years, Sylvestr has played for four clubs in Israel. In around 67 league appearances, the striker has scored 20 goals for the various Israeli clubs he has represented.
His final stint was with Hapoel Haifa whom he joined in January 2020. He scored five goals in 17 appearances for them before opting to join Chennaiyin FC.
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