They wrote the wrong name on my jersey, nobody was interested in me at Lazio at the beginning, recalls Kozak

At 34, he’s without a contract and waiting for an offer. Czech striker Libor Kozak has a rich portfolio, having played in the Premier League and before that in Serie A. How does he remember his beginnings at Lazio Roma in Italy?

Kozak arrived in Italy as a 19-year-old talent in the summer of 2008 for €1.2 million from Opava. At that time it was a huge amount of money from the Czech club’s point of view, but the young international started at Lazio Rome in the youth team.

From July to November he was getting used to his new surroundings. He didn’t play in Serie A, of course, and his first experience of Italian football was in Primavera C, a competition for players under 19. He started as a substitute.

“I thought I would go home, I gave it a try. But I didn’t give up, after six months things started to change. I was more confident and the boys started to take me,” Libor Kozak told Footcast.

Kozak was helped a lot by a goal in the second round. He needed just 19 final minutes, but he scored to tie the game 1-1 and improve his position in the team. The rise in form did not come, however, and he did not enter the scorers’ list again until the seventh round.

“The first half of the year I was air. There you could put the ball in front of an empty net and the man didn’t score. Until one shows nothing on the pitch, one is not entertained,” continued the burly striker.

Between the eighth and tenth round, Kozák scored four important goals and secured his place in the line-up for the rest of the season. He finished the year with eight goals, and he also took the field three times in Serie A. In the last round against Juventus, he made his debut in the starting line-up.

“They also wrote my name wrong on the jersey during the preparation, I had Kozac there. It was interesting, but at the same time a huge school,” Kozak said.

The next season was also a school. In it, Kozak already belonged to the A-team and a year after Lazio’s relegation from Serie A, he helped them to climb back among the elite through a successful playoff run. Individual performances as well as team performances grew, and right after relegation Lazio were in a position to play in the Europa League in 2011/12.

Kozak’s memorable year, in any case, didn’t come until the year after. Ten hits in 11 EL games made him the competition’s top scorer. So after the season, the club famously sold him to Aston Villa for €6.5 million.

Source: Footcast