7/8/2024, Editorial Board
Until Wednesday evening, it was Peter Olayinka who held the shared lead in the number of European matches played with a star on the jersey. The king replaces the king, Lukáš Masopust recorded the match with the number 56 in the match with Union!
Playing for Slavia is a privilege, an honor. In every duel, the footballers stand behind the values shaped by the club’s long history. At home and on the old continent. And it is precisely in Europe that the representation of red and white colors is the biggest commitment. A bond that forms an advertisement for a stitched village across the country’s borders.
It started symbolically, in Genk, Belgium. On February 21, 2019, Lukáš Masopust had a great turn in the round of 16 rematch against the local KRC. A legendary outing that no celebrant will easily forget. And neither did Lukáš, because it was there that his European story was born.
Sevilla followed, a magical fairy tale that only came to an end with a narrow defeat at London’s Stamford Bridge. “I always fondly remember the elimination of the most successful European League team in history. But the stress of a big match just doesn’t allow you to fully enjoy it. Or he didn’t let me then. I was young, inexperienced, I would probably experience it differently now. A person is always developing,” said Lukáš the other day for Poločas magazine.
But that was just the beginning. The league title transported the Slavists to the play-offs for the main group of the Champions League, where they longed to reach after twelve long years. Romania, Cluj and the unconventional green jerseys seemed to give Lukáš the luck he badly needed when volleying after a corner kick. It worked. With his first European goal, he punched a ticket to the millionaire competition and started counting. First hit out of seven. “I’m glad for that, mainly because we trained for similar situations. I knew that the goalkeeper would climb out a little, so I wanted to put it behind him with an arc. But as they say, it doesn’t matter who scored. The main thing is that it was won,” he announced modestly from Romania.
Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona. Three giants, against whom the now thirty-one-year-old winger always played from the first minute. Six times he heard the most beautiful melody in the football world, and after Jan Bořil’s assist, also an explosion of joy, which miraculously did not tear Eden to pieces.
In the next season, he was at the scalp of Rangers, Leicester or Leverkusen. He played all twelve matches of the Europa League and made it to the quarter-finals for the second time with Slavia, where the Gunners from the English capital put a strong stop to the team.
In order to make the list of European competitions complete, the Slavists also played in the Conference League in the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons. In the away match against Union Berlin, he even put on the captain’s armband and, unusually, from the position of stopper, he watched the progressing draw.
He didn’t slack off, on the contrary. Despite a pair of Ukrainian opponents, he helped Slavia to fall Europe again last year. First he scored the winning goal in rainy Geneva, and a few weeks later he sealed the scalp of AS Roma, which meant a historic graduation from first place in the group. “The really big games were played in the knockout stage and resulted in the promotion. This is a group, but I have to admit that the older I get and the more matches I have under my belt, the more I can enjoy such duels,” Maso symbolically described his age-old genesis, which is more than clear compared to the feedback after Sevilla.
All in all, 56 starts, 7 goals, 6 assists and countless European experiences. Such is the record balance of Lukáš Masopust in the most beautiful jersey. The balance is breathtaking, unique, worthy of recognition. Nobody has more. Huge congratulations, Lukas!
