Roman Begala (born 18 July 1999) is a Slovak professional footballer who currently plays for FC Tatran Prešov in Slovak First Football League as a midfielder.
He grew up in Banské near Vranov nad Topľou,[2] and his very first club was TJ Poľana Banské.[3] His other youth teams included MFK Vranov nad Topľou,[4] VSS Košice, FK Senica and MFK Zemplín Michalovce.[2] He also made his senior debut for VSS Košice, but the club then went bankrupt in 2017. After the stint in Senica, where he captained the youth team, he began training with Zemplín Michalovce's senior team in January 2018.[4]
Begala made his Slovak Super Liga debut for Zemplín Michalovce against Slovan Bratislava on 27 July 2018. He replaced Stanislav Danko three minutes before the end of a 0–3 defeat.[5]
Later in the 2018–19 season, he joined Slavoj Trebišov. Here, he became captain and was ultimately the team's longest-serving player when he requested to have his contract terminated in 2023. Sportnet called him a "club icon" of Slavoj Trebišov.[citation needed] Following 127 matches across all competitions, he looked to join FC Petržalka.[2][6][7] The team ended slightly above the middle in the 2024–25 2. Liga.
As Begala's contract with Petržalka would expire in 2025, Czech media discussed transfer interest from Dynamo Ceske Budejovice as well as Tatran Prešov.[8] Begala started training with Tatran Prešov, winners of the 2024–25 Second Liga and thus newly promoted to the first tier.[9] The transfer was announced as official on 20 June 2025.[10]
