Foreign players flock to Slovak football league

Zdroj: Pravda, Michal Zeman


The Slovak football opens its door to foreign players. Two clubs from the Slovak premier division have foreign owners; four premier division clubs are led by the Czech head coaches. Shortly before the spring’s season kick off there is a record number of foreigners in the Slovakian clubs. On the team sheets of the Slovak premier division clubs there are 53 foreigners - the biggest number in 15-year-long history of the new and independent Slovak football era.
„ It is a logical trend, not only in sports”, underlines Jozef Tokoš, one of domestic players` agents. He has no objections to this trend. „International players are real league-freshener. Of course, that is true only in case when high-quality players come. Only then I consider this trend as beneficial. But in case that clubs acquire average or even weak players, the process is not beneficial at all.” More than fifty foreigners form 4 line-ups including substitutes, what is 1/3 of teams from the competition. And this number cannot be final, although the transfer term is over. How is this possible? Some clubs are trying out other foreign players, who could become a part of teams as amateurs. In these days Tokoš offered some reinforcements, too. Right now, there are two African footballers Bakongolia and Mapiana on a try-out at MFK Košice. Both of them come from the DR Congo. Until now, no Congolese player has ever played in the Slovak top-flight.

Current foreign players` list

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Spartak Trnava 10
MŠK Žilina 6
AS Trenčín 6
Artmedia Petržalka 5
FC Nitra 5
Slovan Bratislava 5
MFK Ružomberok 3
MFK Košice 3Dukla Banská Bystrica 3
ViOn Zlaté Moravce 3
FC Senec 3
ZTS Dubnica 1