You have won the golden ball for the second time, so you only have to triumph in it ten more times and you will catch up with Petr Čech …
I have to look into my ID if I have time.
You’ve already topped him in one. He never won either with a huge lead like you this time. And he won the poll twelve times. Is that really such a huge difference between you and all other Czech footballers?
I don’t think so, it’s more about a huge boom that occurred as the Premier League began to be watched in the Czech Republic. And especially West Ham, which has started to support a lot of people, for which I am happy. Thanks to that, I get support in all the polls that take place at home. Maybe in the Golden Ball.
So the Souom boom?
I don’t like to evaluate myself, so I don’t want to say anything like that. But I like how many people are watching the Premier League at our home from Friday to Sunday and how they are looking forward to our West Ham matches. Many Czech footballers used to play in the best teams, then there was a break and now it is changing again.
Souček won the Golden Ball for the second time. And again with a record lead
However, your teammates in the national team probably perceive and respect the difference when you make them the captain’s national team after the new season after Darida is finished.
That is a great honor for me.
And the challenge to lead the team to where he led it?
Thanks and congratulations to Vlad for that. Throughout his career in the national team, for what he did for the national team. But for me, it won’t change that much with the captain’s armband. I was already trying to lead the boys, service them and encourage them. They knew they could count on me.
You really did lead them at the European Championships. In the round of 16 against the Dutch, in the quarterfinal against the Danes.
We wanted even further, so I’m still sorry about how the last match turned out. In retrospect, however, I must evaluate our performance positively. We advanced from the group deservedly, we played an excellent match with the Netherlands in the round of 16 in Budapest. But even the anger of being eliminated in the quarterfinals will help us.
Midfielder Tomáš Souček is looking forward to the captain’s armband …
Vlastimil Vacek, Right
To Qatar? For next year’s World Cup? To advance to the World Cup, where the Czech national team played once during its independent existence?
At the European Championship, we had a great group that will continue to qualify. That is why advancing to the World Cup is our big goal.
And will you continue in the national team as a West Ham player, or are you flirting and thinking about the interest of the big Premier League clubs that you had to register?
After a great year and a half, when we first escaped in the Premier League to finish sixth next season and win the European League, I’m happy in West Ham. Of course, in football, you never know what will happen the next day.
Especially when you figured in a selection of eight star players who ran for the Premier League Player of the Year trophy.
The big thing is to be in the community of footballers who are among the best in the world, such as Harry Kane, Kevin de Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes. I didn’t expect anything like that at all, it was an even greater experience for me. And motivation too.
You didn’t have to be so surprised again when you, as a defensive midfielder, scored ten goals a season, which surprised football England a lot.
However, I say to myself that for me as a defensive midfielder, the main task is to prevent goals. But on the other hand, I’m also getting used to the need to score goals as well. And if I don’t do it in four matches in a row, I start to get nervous about it.
You are probably no longer nervous about the individual honors that come to you after the end of each season. After all, this year you won everything you could win at home. You became the Footballer of the Year, you won the Golden Ball, you also appeared in the ten best athletes of the year.
I am a great Czech who always likes to return home and would like to live here after a career, so I really appreciate it when they appreciate me in my country. It is not only recognition, but motivation for further work and seasons.
Especially after the season, which you can definitely consider as a living …
If I add up football and personal life, it was probably really a year of life, although it’s hard to compare individual seasons. Slavia and I, for example, became champions and celebrated successes in Cup Europe.
Soccer player Tomáš Souček took over the Golden Ball. Pictured left is his agent Pavel Paska.
Jan Handrejch, Right
Now you can celebrate them with West Ham. That is, if the European League says anything to your club at all and is interested. After all, there is a general awareness of Premier League teams that they are only interested in the Champions League, while other competitions are a problem for them.
This is definitely not the case for West Ham, because he has not played in Cup Europe for many years. However, when we had a certain participation in the European League after the last round of the Premier League, coach Moyes came and joyfully announced it to me.
What did you answer him?
That I know it every year from Slavia.
You could meet Slavia in the European League …
Rather, I wish her to get out of the qualifying preliminary rounds to the Champions League. And only if she didn’t succeed by chance could we meet in the European League.
But it will not be an easy season for Kladivář, because after last year, the expectations of the fans are high.
We know it won’t be easy because we scored a record number of points in the Premier League. But the motivation is great. We want to repeat last season and follow up on the performances, we will also want to get to the farthest in the European League.
While your teammates are already training, coach Moyes still gives you time off. When will you even get involved in training?
Teammates who did not start at the European Championship were given five and a half weeks off, we three and a half off. For the first fortnight, I rested and tried to make up for the family’s long absence, when I could not be with it because of living in a bubble during the European Championships. But lying in bed for three weeks, I couldn’t stand it. In West Ham, we start with Vlada Coufal on July 28, and I want to be ready, of course.
English representative Declan Rice (right) with Tomáš Souček (left) and Vladimír Coufal after the EURO match.
Matt Dunham, ČTK / AP
What will it be like to return to England, which is experiencing huge disappointment after the failure of the European Championship final?
I wished the English success and cheered for them, because of course I know a lot of players, including West Ham teammate Declan Rice. But they didn’t have a day in the final, so it just happens sometimes. But in the end, they take it positively, because they played a great tournament and advanced to the finals after many years.
And it could have been an even greater success if they had not sent teenagers Saka et al. To shoot penalties.
Young boys have great self-confidence today. They wanted to go digging, they went for penalties and it didn’t work out. If they turned, they could be heroes.
In the end, the Italians won the gold, whose strength you could see for yourself. Although not at the championship, but in preparation, when they gave you four goals in Bologna.
Before the championship, the Italians were not considered the biggest favorites, but we really tested their strength. And at the championship, it was clear with them how interested they are in their goal and what charge they have in them. They deserved gold.
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