After the season, you extended your contract with Slovácko for another two years. Do you continue for the record?
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I didn’t admit this thing before. But now that I’m so close, I would definitely break the record. By extending the contract by two years, I would like to move it much higher. But there are a lot of obstacles in the way. It has to keep me healthy, I have to have performance.
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What does the limit of 500 starts tell you?
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It’s not science fiction. But at my age, health is already cramped, a person is more prone to injury. We’ll see, everything is in the stars.
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What is the essential, apart from health and qualities, to have for football longevity?
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Lifestyle is important. No alcohol, no parties, pull down the blinds at ten and go to bed. (laughs) Everyone has this differently. I probably have by nature that I’m still so young. It was important that I never had a severe injury that would take me out for a long time. In this way, I can maintain myself physically and quickly.
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Hand on heart, do you tolerate well even in thirty-nine long bus journeys to matches?
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Of course, sometimes I say to myself when we leave Teplice, for example: man, the long journey again. But I do not perceive travel negatively. We have a bed in the bus, I lie down after the match, the road escapes me.
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A week ago, you started your twentieth summer training in the first league. When you were thirty, did you think of getting to that number?
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At that time, you were written off at thirty-three that you were old. Not even the clubs that played for rescue talked to you. Over time, the football age has stretched, which is only good. If you have to play it physically and physically, it doesn’t matter if you’re twenty-two or forty.
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Was it hard for you at the time to realize that you were almost a veteran?
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I didn’t go abroad until I was twenty-nine, so my career was set for a longer period of time. I was in Pilsen for a few years after my return, we played upstairs. I ended up worse in Viktorka.
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Are you still sorry for the end in Pilsen?
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When I left Viktorka, I felt great. I was unhappy that she didn’t want me, that I had to leave just because I was thirty-four. On the other hand, I escaped. I wanted to prove in Slovácko that Pilsen made a mistake. I’m glad I hold like that. I showed that I do not belong to scrap metal.
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Most starts in the Czech and Czechoslovak league | |
465 | Jaroslav Šilhavý |
455 | Stanislav Vlček |
452 | Milan Petržela |
440 | Martin Vaniak |
439 | Jaromír Blažek |
436 | Horst Siegl |
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Praise stinks, I stick to it. But I can say that I am satisfied with how the return to Slovácko is going. We have a good team, we did two super seasons in a row. Coach Svědík tells me that I am such a lucky person. For Slovácko, winning the cup is the same as for Plzeň, the title. On the other hand, we knitted a whip on each other. Fans will want us to stay upstairs.
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Honestly, is this long-term sustainable for a club the size of Slovácko? It is difficult to compete with the movable Sparta, Slavia and Pilsen.
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In Slovácko, we played everything on the field. We are a small club, no one helped us with anything. Our position is more complicated than in stronger clubs. But we are all the more pleased that we have dug up our successes ourselves.
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Does Slovácko have the quality to get to the cup Europe? The 3rd preliminary round of the European League awaits you, if you manage it, you will have a certain basic group of the Conference League.
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Of course we want to fight for the cups. It is not written anywhere that we cannot proceed to the main stage. That would be a huge thing.
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Due to the postponed final of the MOL Cup, you missed the farewell match of your best friend David Limberský in Pilsen. Have you breathed it yet?
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My family and I were ready to go to Pilsen, to say goodbye to everything. I was looking forward to playing with Limba again. Unfortunately, a cloud came in Hradiště, it rained, the final had to be translated. If it was a league, I might have agreed with the coach, but this was not possible. Limba and I talked on the phone. We met a couple after the finals at Radim Řezník’s wedding, where we remembered it again. But maybe we’ll play my farewell if I have it. Or in the old guard.
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