Tipsport Malta Cup: Spartak Trnava strengthened by Slovak star Martin Škrtel

The 2010 World Cup participant arrived in South Africa for the last match against Danish side Aalborg. “I still feel a bit tired, I had a complicated journey, I had a bit of an unfortunate flight,” he said.

“But I wanted to join the team as soon as possible to catch some training sessions,” he knows how important the team is. “As for the game, we will have to see, we have one more training session tomorrow,” he leaves open whether he will start against the Danes.

In addition, the 37-year-old veteran has to think about his health. “So far it has been mainly running, my achilles has been bothering me a bit, but I am happy to be here and I believe it will improve,” he recalled which part of his body is bothering him the most.

“Unfortunately in Slovakia we can’t avoid artificial turf in winter, everyone will say it’s not ideal. After the harder training sessions we’ve had, I’ve had a little bit of an echo, but the important thing is that nothing has been damaged. Here we are on a natural surface, it’s quite different,” he welcomes the Maltese pitches.

He signed a one-year contract with Trnava in the summer, then we’ll see. “At this age, what’s left for me,” he takes every game as fun. “ I know there are not many years ahead of me, I try to enjoy every game and every training session to the fullest,” he confirms. “I’ve lost more time to operations, I’ve missed football, I’m happy to be at the club I love, with good players, coach and people,” he confesses.

He considers the Slovak top competition to be strong. ” It is unnecessarily underestimated,” he says. “I played in England, Turkey, and I can say that the matches have quality,” he points out. “There are good players, experienced and young prospects. I can’t say it’s been easy for me,” he declares.

He has a special contract with Spartak:: he gets a euro (about 25 CZK) from every ticket sold. However, the stands were empty in the autumn. “Partly because of the coronavirus crisis and partly because of bad decisions,” he reflects on the situation.

“As athletes, however, we have to take it. I imagined it a bit differently from this point of view, in the summer it was still ok, the stadiums were full, the atmosphere was there,” he recalls the beginning of the season.

“The last few rounds in front of empty stands, that doesn’t amuse any footballer, there was nothing positive. We have to cope with it and I believe that over time the regulation will slow down, the coronavirus is on the decline,” hopes Škrtel to enjoy the full stands.

He has a reason to do so.