BRATISLAVA. They call him Kiwi, his agent called him half Slovak. He got his driver’s license in Brezno, speaks Slovak.
On Saturday, Jakub Kiwior celebrated his goal in the best league in the world, he won with his head. His London Arsenal defeated Newcastle United 4:1 in the 26th round of the Premier League.
However, the fight between the two former Žilina players did not take place. Martin Dúbravka was absent in the visitors’ goal due to illness, he was replaced by the well-known underdog Loris Karius.
The 23-year-old Kiwior established himself in the starting line-up of one of the best teams in the world in the new year. He writes one of the biggest and most unusual stories in the history of the Slovak league.
At the same time, he was written off at the Anderlecht academy in Brussels six years ago.
“We had a debate with the sporting director, who told us he was slow and would never play big football. We went to watch a youth Champions League match where Kiwior was the fastest player. We were surprised that he was overlooked like this,” began agent Branislav Jašurek from the FairSport company.
How liquidation helped him
“In the end, we bought it as the first investment in Podbrezova,” added Jašurek. It was in 2018. He made his debut in the Fortuna League on February 16, 2019 in Podbrezová’s jersey.
“I wanted to finally get into senior football. That was the main reason for changing the club. I knew that it would be difficult for me to break into the first team at Anderlecht and it was high time. There was an opportunity to go to Slovakia and I took it,” he explained.
By the end of the 2018/2019 season, Kiwior played 14 matches in the colors of Podbrezova.
“Jakub immediately became the best player. In the meantime, Podbrezová was relegated to the second league and became small for Jakub. We immediately had offers from Bröndby Copenhagen and FC Nordsjaelland. The Italians were calling and Juventus wanted him in the junior team,” explained Jašurek.
In the summer of 2019, however, he headed to Žilina.
In March 2020, the club owned by Jozef Antošík went into liquidation for a while and 17 footballers left it. They became free agents and could leave for free.
The owner reduced the salaries of the rest of the team, some by as much as eighty percent. “We sorted the temporarily reduced salaries into five levels,” Antošík told Sportnet. He also revealed specific numbers and salaries:
2024-02-25 21:15:19
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