He bet on the national team Milan Baroš forty-one goals, but admit: if you have to recall one, it will be the one from the match with the Netherlands at Euro 2004.
He was not the winner, he did not decide on the progress, only on the equalization to 2: 2. But he made Baroš a star, because he fell in a memorable match, in a memorable moment and in a memorable tournament, during which he scored four more times.
Soccer player Baroš ends his career. My health won’t let me continue, he said |
Neither the Czech Republic nor Czechoslovakia has ever had the best scorer of the Euro, only then in Portugal.
It has been sixteen years since Baroš’s star shone so brightly.
It flashes for the last time on Sunday evening at home in Ostrava.
“It simply came to our notice then. I will not stop my age, my health has been bad this season, “he announced on Friday at noon in a hall full of journalists.
Evenly, in a certain voice, without tears in his eyes, with a diction resembling a machine gun – he hadn’t changed.
Neighbors, come topot!
Otherwise, of course, a different Baroš ends his career than the one that even foreign journalists wrote about in the summer of 2004 as a living silver, a king and a miracle.
He returned to his beloved Baník three times, he had a thick beard growing, his knees hurt, Achilles were pulling, he managed to jump into the match for a few minutes – which will probably be the case with Sunday’s farewell against Pilsen.
It acts as a psychological element rather than a predator. The last time he scored last September was, so he tries to throw his opponents on the pitch: either by intrusion, emphasis or endless debate with the referees.
Ostrava – PilsenWatch on Sunday from 5 pm online. |
But none of this prevents Baroš from slipping deeply. For lasting until almost thirty-nine, and for everything he managed to do: with its end, Czech football loses the last star face of the golden generation, the second best scorer in national history.
The man who got out of hand.
From an early age, he differed in the naughty, stubbornness, and passion for football that he simply could not see.
Baroš: I used to be a rapper on the field, but I don’t feel the anger of the fans towards me |
“He still couldn’t even speak properly when he ran to the neighbors under the window and called out to them: come and heat,” said his grandmother at the time when a Czech superstar was born from Baroš and TV crews came to his native Vigantice en masse.
Reporters learned a lot. For example, how ten-year-old Milanek got his ears at home when he threw all his saved money into a slot machine in a pub.
His parents, especially his father Milan, kept Baroš short and raised him strictly. Thanks to that, there was no further gambling, the junior stuck to football. He crossed the nearby Rožnov pod Radhoštěm into the Baník in Ostrava at the age of twelve, and in five years he had changed into the A’s cabin.
—
He introduced himself: right at the first training he inadvertently broke the nose of an experienced defender Bolf with his elbow.
“Anyone who knows me off the field is amazed at how much I rapped on the lawn. My wife also tells me, “said Baroš on Friday. “But I’ve always been like that: I’ll just leave everything on the field.”
He wouldn’t be enough with stubbornness, he had far more advantages. The main one? Move to goal. Baroš never attacked the corner flag – when he took the balloon, he did not think, did not zigzag, did not speculate.
He rubbed it right on the gate.
He aimed it in a similarly straight line abroad: from Ostrava at the age of nineteen he jumped straight to the famous Liverpool. He sat in the stands for the first half of the year, but when he got his first chance in the league, he hit twice.
Journalists flew to England, Baroš willingly accompanied them, told an interesting story, he was not afraid to speak. Only later did he fight the media – just after the famous Portuguese Euro.
Barcelona? Real? It did not work
During the tournament, he transformed from a joker who jumped in the second halves into a star and a tug of war. Five goals and a trophy for the best shooter made him an idol of fans, long dark hair with a headband and a pleasing face attracted crowds of women.
Who wouldn’t be able to get it at twenty-two?
Inside, Baroš remained the same. When he came home to Vigantice, he went for a beer with his old friends, among the “party”. But in the big world that began to open up to him, he spiraled out of control.
He broke up after Euro with his long-time girlfriend Eva, and especially after moving to Lyon, France, he started a carousel of escapades.
Baroš’s returns to Baník. He gave up his salary, criticized, ruined his reputation with shorts |
He mistaken the French highway for a racetrack, and in a Ferrari he raced along it at a speed of 271 kilometers per hour.
In the match against Rennes, he stuffed his nose in front of visiting dark-skinned defender Mbiou, for which he earned accusations of racism.
And he didn’t shy away from parties, so he had a reputation as a troublemaker in the best football age.
“When he gets married, he calms down,” believed national team coach Karel Brückner. He was right.
Along with his wife Tereza and sons Patrik and Matteo, Baroš settled down, stopped wildening and kicked off his career again in Galatasaray Istanbul, where fans still religiously worship him thanks to more than sixty goals scored.
He also has a big name in Liverpool, with whom he won the Champions League – together with Vladimír Šmicr as the first Czech.
He also went abroad through Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Turkish Antalyaspor, celebrating seven trophies. It is almost a sin to ask if such a remarkable career could have been even more significant.
But she could! After all, the most brilliant football brands were chasing him after the memorable Euro. Lorenzo Sanz, the candidate for President of Real Madrid, promised: If you elect me, I will buy Baros! They did not vote and the store went down.
Barcelona did not march either, because Liverpool wanted more than half a billion crowns for the transfer. But at the end of his career, the Ostrava patriot fires another thing: “A miner is a sweetheart and I’m sorry I didn’t win any trophies with him.”
Baroš will certainly put even more energy into Sunday’s farewell.
Even if it only took a few minutes.
–
