"I never forgave my teammate": Libor Kozak on tough life at Lazio and broken leg at Villa

The interview can be described as "from Opava to Opava". Let's go to the start of your career. At the age of 19, you transferred from Opava to Lazio Roma for almost 30 million crowns. Do you remember how you perceived it at that time, did you think about it for a long time?

"It was a no-brainer, Opava bosses presented it to me as a done deal. I had mixed feelings, though. I didn't know what I was getting into. I was a young boy, a little bit of a mama's boy, I had a hard time accepting the fact that I would be far away alone, and I didn't speak the language... 80% was fear, the rest was excitement that there was a shift. But I knew I had to do it. I had a lot of support from my family, I couldn't have done it without them."

How did you struggle with a new life, a new language, and a completely different football?

"Well, my fears came true. The first six months were scary. After the preparation, they threw me into the junior team, I didn't even play there. I was alone there, everything was wrong. But somehow I survived, anyway, at Christmas I got a call from my agent that it didn't look good, that there was a threat of cancelling my contract. And I actually thought I wouldn't mind that much. Anyway, it didn't happen and after the New Year I started to function on and off the field. I even finished the season in the A's."

What do you explain the mid-season break?

"There was a bit of a feeling that I had nothing to lose and that I would give it my all. At the same time, I didn't want to go home like a sniveling dog. I also fit in more with the team, my tongue was going. It was also reflected on the field, where I knew that I had what it takes even among the competition. I started to believe in myself, which was the alpha and omega of everything."

After a successful spring, the question was what to do next. In the end, the option of a loan in the second league Brescia won out. Was it the club's idea?

"I knew it would be nice to go somewhere where I could play. The club had the same opinion, there was nothing to discuss. Brescia had the ambition to get promoted, it was a great season. We were a good group of guys from all over the world and we managed to get promoted. It was also a great football school."

The next season you played for Lazio and scored your first goals. Did you feel at that time that you belonged there?

"I had a good preparation, I was their top scorer. The coach decided that there would be no more loan moves and that just gives you a boost and confirms that you are on the right track. This took a long time, but it worked. The hardest part was earning the respect of others. Once that flipped, it was a different story. I was a full member of the team, that's a big thing."

Lazio fans are said to be among the most radical in Italy. Who they don't like, they feel it. Whoever is successful is hoisted on their shoulders. Did you feel the same way?

"I have to say I like the Lazio fans. They saw a guy who is fighting hard for an opportunity. And when he gets it, he scores a goal or does something that leads to it. And if he doesn't, he leaves everything on the pitch. I've finished a game with my head bandaged a few times. They love that over there. To this day, I still feel they love me. They still text me. When I go to Rome, I feel it. I wasn't a goal machine, but they appreciate other things."

You had a season in which you rampaged in the Europa League, scoring 10 goals. However, in that same season in Serie A, you didn't score a goal. What was the anomaly?

"It's strange. In Europe, I was given the number one position, in the league I was behind Miroslav Klose. I remember that I was quite unlucky with offsides and chances. But once Thursday night came, it was the complete opposite. I don't know what it was, but I was very confident on the European stage. I scored goals from everything, it was a great season. Goals in Europe are something special, beautiful."

Then came the move to Aston Villa. Why Villa?

"All parties agreed at the time that it was great, but that it was time to move on. Offers were coming in, but Aston Villa were the most active. The Premier League was my dream. I turned down everything else, I didn't even want to know about other interested parties. But the club president wanted as much money as possible, so the transfer started to drag on a bit."

Were you worried it wouldn't work out?

"Very much. I got into quite a conflict with the sporting director. After the row, I thought I was finished, that I wasn't going anywhere, and that Lazio would shut me down and I'd be training in the hills somewhere for a year. But it worked out in the end, the next day they called me to pack up and that I could fly."

A solid start in England, but then a big health scare. How did you cope, was it possible to stay positive?

"The first six months were great. My dream came true, I did well, and my coach believed in me. Unfortunately, then came the injury in training. A teammate broke my tibia and fibula. I haven't played football in more or less three years. You can try as hard as you want, but you can't always have a positive mindset."

Were those thoughts very dark?

"It was more of a what-if. My career was on the up, and I was confident. I knew I could go higher. And this happened."

I honestly can't imagine how much of a stir there must have been in the dressing room after that. What was it like?

"It was like you say. I didn't take it. He and his family wanted to see me, they wanted to talk to me and apologise. But for me, the man was finished. I didn't want to raise hell in the dressing room, but I didn't try, I never accepted the apology."

You tried to kick-start your career again in Italy, where you played for two clubs in the second league. Was it a kind of sentimental return to where you thrived?

"Exactly. My agent recommended it and I felt he was right. To reboot where I kicked things off and where I have a name, it made sense to me. But it didn't work out at all. Physically and mentally, I wasn't doing well. It took me a long time to accept that, through no fault of my own, I had to drop down a few levels. I was hugely disappointed, it was a hard knock and a big ordeal."

So Liberec, your next engagement, was a deliverance?

"Definitely. I remember it like it was yesterday. I called my agent and said I needed some momentum, something new. I wanted to go back to the Czech Republic, where I had never played in the first league. I wanted to prove myself. I was convinced. Even if it didn't work out in the spring, I would quit."

Was it a speech of emotion and the impact of disappointment, or did you consider the end of your career as a real possibility?

"I took it as a real thing. If it was still the same misery, I wanted the end."

But it worked out great in Liberec, then Sparta and the league's top scorer. Did you feel you were back?

"Already in Liberec I found momentum. The huge trust of the coach did a lot for that. They played on me, and that helped me a lot. I told myself I was back. As soon as Sparta came calling, it was another big step for me. It was me. I wanted goals all the time, I was getting to know myself. Everything went well, we won the cup and I was the top scorer, I enjoyed it a lot again."

So why did it end in the Czech Republic?

"At Sparta, the contract extension didn't work out because of an injury."

Did that not bother Puskas in Hungary, where you went afterward?

"In Hungary, there was coach Hornyak, who helped me a lot in Liberec. He wanted me to join him. I knew he wouldn't rush me after my injury, it made sense, even though I was a bit skeptical about Hungary. But in the final, I was glad for the experience. It's a decent level there, I was surprised."

The 2022/23 season was such a struggle. From Slovacko, where it didn't go well, to a struggling and sinking Zlín. Did everything go wrong that could?

"Slovacko was a wrong step. With coach Martin Svedik, it couldn't go, it couldn't go. Everything was fine with the management, but I didn't talk about the arrival directly with the coach, which was a mistake. It made sense to me at the time, but after the first few days, I knew it was wrong. I wondered what I was doing at my age if I needed this. It took away my appetite for football, I was broken, and my confidence was gone. And Zlin? The coach Pavel Vrba was there, he wanted me and I came back to life. They knew who was coming to them, and what they could ask of me. Even when they were playing for salvation, I started to enjoy it, but unfortunately, I got injured after that."

Could you elaborate on the penultimate chapter of Arezzo in the Italian third division, another retreat from the Czech Republic? And most importantly, it didn't work out football-wise.

"My family and I wanted to go to Italy, which we can't afford. I knew that thinking about the second league there was more or less utopian, so we looked at the third league. We found a club in Tuscany, just below Florence. It was a working club, no problem there. It was me - I came after an injury I suffered in Zlin. I came there at a stage when I was just getting back to health, completely unprepared and unfit. It took time then. The coach waited for me, but then he didn't. Instead of suffering on the bench, we decided to end it."

You've arrived where it started to Opava. What kind of environment did you return to?

"I saw the place where I grew up, where I started, and where my career began. But the people in the club had almost all changed, I only knew a few of them. You're naturally a bit embarrassed, but over time everything got back to normal. I'm very happy here, it's settled down nicely."

What did you expect from the second league and has it lived up to expectations so far?

"I didn't have big expectations. It didn't matter to me what league it was. It's still too early to judge what it will be like, but from the first rounds I think it will be very even, it will depend on little things."

What do you come to Opava with, what are your ambitions?

"I want to be happy. My biggest ambition and goal is to find my hunger for football again. I want to enjoy scoring goals again, I want to enjoy duels, I want to enjoy everything. That has disappeared a bit in the last few years. Something was missing. But when I came back to Opava, the motivation was back, I was all charged up. I want to do my best for the club, that's what drives me, I'm an Opava player. Having my family and friends here is just an extra charge."

So you've been playing more out of duty the last few years?

"I wouldn't say it like that, but something was missing. You want it too much, but you can't force it into your head. I've always been a tenacious player, I sold it on the field. Suddenly you're missing those little bits of happiness, and that's just a reflection of what I'm talking about. When I was figuring out what to do next, the main thing for me was to find a club that would give me what I needed."