Ing. Jozef Čapkovič

"There were times when teenage teams played pre-matches. Today you don't see it because they would destroy the grass. They saw these football players there. And a young football player like me, when I knew there were twelve thousand people there, I would tear up. I was everywhere. Today, the boys don't have that here. When they go to play somewhere, they put them at Inter, on the field next door. When twenty people come there, that's a lot. Who can see them? But at that time it was clear: The pre-matches were agreed teenage teams play. There the fans also saw who is good, who Slovan should choose, who Trnava should have... That was the basis of how to discover talent. I was lucky, we played the Zadanajský Pohár in Bratislava. We played against the Italians, and I played as a striker at the time and scored three goals. I also played some league pre-match and then Slovan came to my father saying they wanted me and they scouted me there. But this is how more players were scouted: Emil Hanák from Červenka, Slavia Prague came and took him, Ján Luža, also Slavia, i think. Mazanec - Košice. They had somewhere to see us. Now? Do you know what it is when the two of you see each other? But when there are seventeen thousand? When we played in front of Červená Hviezda, Červená Hviezda and Slovan were there, thirty thousand fans were there. An hour before our game, maybe five thousand people were there. Because the pupils played. I know that the owners of the club are afraid that their grass will be destroyed. But when he wants to raise a player for himself?"

"At that time, the balance was almost on the same level, whether a Czech or a Slovak, probably the same. I mean in terms of football. But if a Slovak wanted to be in the national team, he had to be far better than a Czech. That was the difference." - "So it wasn't that noticeable in the league?" - "Not in the league. In the league at that time, very few Czechs played in Slovakia, just Jirko Tichý, who played in Červená hviezda. He was a Czech, I don't know if he was in Slovan at all. In football at that time... You know, also at the European Championships in 1976, there were seventeen Slovaks, maybe six Czechs. Who has the cup, what do you think? Where is the cup? In the Czech association or in the Slovak one?" - "Probably in Czech." - "Certainly. After all, they won it. There were seventeen of us there from Slovakia."