Nová Baňa

Marek Bakoš left Nová Baňa as a boy and picked up 14 caps for Slovakia along the way. In 2026 he came back to the club where he started in 1990.

That homecoming says something about the size of the place. Nová Baňa has spent most of its recent history shuttling between the third and fourth tiers of Slovak football, and its one senior title of note came in 2023, when it won the 3. Liga and went up to the 2. Liga — only to be relegated back down. Two years later it did the same trick a level lower, taking the 6. Liga group C in 2025 with 69 points and returning to the third tier.

The club, founded in 1912, has had its moments in the Slovnaft Cup rather than the league. In 2015–16 it beat Prameň Kováčová and Kinex Bytča before Lokomotíva Košice ended the run. This season followed a similar shape: a 7–1 win over Partizán Osrblie in the first round, then elimination by Dynamo Diviaky.

There is no fixed rival with a name attached to it, though matches against Žarnovica, the neighbouring town's club, carry the usual weight of local pride. Home games are played in blue and yellow at the Futbalový štadión MFK Nová Baňa, a ground built for 3,000 but run at a working capacity of 1,000 — enough, on most weekends, for a town whose team calls its supporters Novobančania.