Nastja Čeh


Nastja Čeh is a Slovenian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Club career

Čeh started his career with his hometown club Drava Ptuj. By the age of 17 he was playing in the first team in the 2. SNL. In the 1996–97 season he moved from Drava to Maribor, later spending one season at Olimpija before returning to Maribor.
Čeh then moved on to Club Brugge. His first season at the club brought success in the Belgian Cup, and the following season he helped the club win their 12th league title. In August 2002 he scored a late equalising goal in the second-leg of Brugge's Champions League third round qualifying tie against Shakhtar Donetsk. Brugge then went on to qualify through a penalty shoot-out.
In 2005 Čeh was sold to Austria Wien. Jupiler League team Charleroi tried to buy Čeh in late August 2006 but in 2007 he instead signed for Russian Premier Liga side FC Khimki, where he was given the number 10 shirt.
On 5 January 2009, he left Khimki and moved to Greek club Panserraikos. After a short spell in Greece, he signed for Rijeka, spending a season there before moving on yet again to play in Israel.
In April 2012 Čeh signed for PSMS Medan of the Indonesia Super League. His debut match was on 9 April, where he came on in the 53rd minute replacing Muhammad Antoni; he also received his first yellow card on that match.

International career

Čeh was capped 46 times for Slovenia and scored 6 goals. He made two appearances for the national team during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, both times coming on as a substitute.

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
106 10 2001Stadion Bežigrad, Ljubljana1–03–0FIFA World Cup 2002 qualification
206 10 2001Stadion Bežigrad, Ljubljana2–03–0FIFA World Cup 2002 qualification
302 04 2003Stadion Bežigrad, Ljubljana4–14–1UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
406 09 2003Stadion Bežigrad, Ljubljana3–13–1UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
518 08 2004Stadion Bežigrad, Ljubljana1–11–1Friendly match
604 06 2005Dinamo Stadium, Minsk1–01–12006 FIFA World Cup qualification

Controversies

In late April 2011, it was revealed by the Slovenian media that Maribor police department is, for the past six months, investigating an illegal betting organization and six individuals, four of which were from the Maribor area and had already been taken into custody. The Police also revealed that two other collaborators were still at large and that one of those was Goran Šukalo, who allegedly invested over €1.9 million in the organization, in 2011, the majority of which he collected from other professional players. Šukalo categorically denied his involvement in the matter, however, it was revealed by the media and the police that investigators had been tapping the phones of the four persons currently in custody and have recorded a conversation between Šukalo and the leader of the illegal organization Kosta Turner, when Šukalo revealed that another football player, Nastja Čeh, was still owing him €73,000 and was avoiding payment. Allegedly this was the reason why Čeh pawned his property near Ptuj to Kosta Turner, which was visible from the official real estate papers. In January 2012, the general prosecutor on the District Court in Maribor proposed an indictment of six individuals, ring leaders of the illegal betting organization, in light of new evidence against them. The organization allegedly accepted a total of €43 million of bets, with €2.53 million being placed by Čeh.

Honours

Club honors

Maribor
Club Brugge
Austria Wien