Radoslav Kovač: That I could play for the B-team never occurred to me
Radoslav Kovač finds himself in a strange situation at the start of the spring season. His task is to lead Slovan in both the league and European competitions while knowing that he will not be playing for Liberec next season. From the start of the summer, he will be playing for Sparta, with whom he has signed a two-year contract.
Polish
striker, Robert Lewandowski, finds himself in a similar position as he moves to
Bayern Munich from Dortmund in a few months.
In the Czech Republic this is uncommon and in such cases the player
finds himself spending his last six months at the club as a member of the
B-team.
However, Kovač’s situation is somewhat different. ‘’Thank God everything has turned out the way it has. To be honest, I never thought about the possibility of being moved to the reserves. Nothing has changed and I will continue as captain of the team,’’ said Kovač.
‘’I must say that I spoke to Karel, the owner of Liberec, and we have come to an agreement that I will remain captain at the club until the move. Now, I’m going to work hard with the team and strive to end the season successfully,’’ said Kovač, who will have to work with some new players in defence after the departure of Ondřej Kušnír and Renat Kelič.
‘’We are working together but it will take time to get used to each other. The main thing is that we are well prepared for our match against Alkmaar in the Europa Liga. It will be a crucial month in terms of the league and European competition with maybe the results being better than expected,’’said Kovač.
Alkmaar are the favourites to win the match. ‘’They are not a big club but the quality is there. They have a football academy, money and a very experienced coach in Dick Advocaat, who won the title and the UEFA Cup with St. Petersburg. They are the favourites but they can be beaten. Udine were a stronger team,’’ said the former national team captain.
‘’We are ready to go and will give our all against them. It would be a shame if we wasted the opportunity as we would love the fairy tale run to continue,’’ said the Liberec captain.
FOTO: ČTK
