West Ham United star Tomáš Souček has been hailed in his homeland after leading Czech Republic to the European Championships next summer.
Idnes cover the midfielder today and lavish him with praise, particularly after he admitted he “wanted to die” on the field to ensure his country headed to Germany.
The newspaper says the West Ham man doesn’t ‘give off real football beauty’ but is ‘diligent, stubborn, jumps for shots, fights clouds of duels and would leave his soul on the field’.
That’s something he showed during this international break. On Friday he was kicked in the face by Poland’s Jan Bednarek and despite that being a heavy blow and leaving him visibly bloodied, he was back on Monday and competing once more.
“I would terribly blame myself for the failure, because the Czech Republic has never failed to participate in the Euros. That’s why I wanted to die on the field. Maybe even literally.”
The fact that the Czechs found themselves in such a situation was a sign that their ‘football quality has fallen to average’ and they say Souček is proof of that.
But that’s not an insult. On the contrary, they see the fact he fought his way up to the Premier League and the fact he never gave up on that dream, as a quality that his country ‘needs to rely on’.
It now remains to be seen who the country hire as their new manager and what he decides to do moving forwards but for Idnes one thing is clear, it has to be built around Souček, who embodies ‘strength, hard work, honesty and cohesion’. Big praise for the West Ham man indeed.
