Antonin Barak (born 3 December 1994) is a Czech professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Serie A club Fiorentina and the Czech Republic national team.
After starting his professional career at Pribram in the Czech First League, Barak moved on to play for Slavia Prague, before moving to Italy to play in Serie A for Udinese, as well as on loan at other clubs in the same league.
Barak made his career league debut for 1. FK Pribram on 1 June 2013 in a Czech First League 1–1 away draw at Slovan Liberec. He signed for Czech First League club SK Slavia Prague on 30 December 2015 on a contract until June 2019.
On 31 January 2017, Slavia announced that he had signed with Udinese Calcio for a fee of €3 million, but that the transfer would go through after the end of the season.
On 29 January 2020, he joined Serie A club Lecce on loan. On 2 February he scored a goal in a 4–0 home win against Torino, his first match with the salentini side.
On 17 September 2020, he was loaned to Hellas Verona. Verona held an obligation to purchase his rights if certain performance conditions were met.
On 26 August 2022, Barak joined Fiorentina on loan with an option to buy. On 31 January 2023, Fiorentina exercised their option to make the transfer permanent.
In the 2022-23 season, Barak helped Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League and formed a main attacking force with Luka Jovic and Nicolas Gonzalez, scoring 5 goals in 11 matches. In the second leg of the semi-final against Basel, Barak started from the bench and was substituted on 105th minute of extra time, after which he scored an injury time winner for Fiorentina in 129th minute, causing his club to reach the final in Prague, Czech Republic.
In November 2016, Barak received his first call-up to the Czech senior squd for friendly matches against Norway and Denmark. He debuted in the latter match on 15 November and scored a goal.
On 26 March 2017, Barak scored two goals in his competitive debut, a 6–0 victory over San Marino in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage on 26 March 2017. He was later selected for the rescheduled UEFA Euro 2020. |
