After three and a half years, one of the icons of the club’s modern era is leaving Slavia Prague. How does coach Jindřich Trpišovský perceive the departure of Ibrahim Traoré to Pilsen?
He played 176 games for Slavia Prague, winning three championships and three triumphs in the domestic cup. Now 34-year-old midfielder Ibrahim Traoré is leaving Eden and heading to one of the most prominent rivals stitched together in recent years. The experienced midfielder signed a one-year contract with Viktoria Plzeň a few days ago. How does coach Jindřich Trpišovský view the departure of one of his team’s most experienced players?
„It is a specific story,” said the forty-seven-year-old strategist in the Total Podcast podcast. “I really like Ibra. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of my first visits to Slavia. If I remember, then Jan Sýkora tore a muscle in the national team and we urgently needed someone. I chose Ibra. The management made it possible, even though he was 28 or 29 years old at the time“, he recalls.
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According to him, the native of the Ivory Coast belonged to a specific type of player. “He helped us a lot. A great boy who had his confidence. He didn’t need to play, then you pointed at him and he was the best player on the pitch in those games – with Feyenoord for example – and he scored a goal,” he added to the address of the former player of Zlín, Táborsk or Libyan Al-Ahly. Traoré, who also scored a start in the jersey of his national team, should remain at the club even after the end of his career.
Trpišovský: I hope he won’t be angry with us
„He has agreed cooperation with the club“, he stated. “But we told him that the workload in the next player season would not be the same because we want to give priority to other players. And Ibra wanted to play. He feels and wants to play,” continues the experienced strategist. “He discussed some things, then Pilsen came. He agreed there, the clubs agreed among themselves, so I hope he will not be angry with us in the matches between each other. I have and will have the best memories of him and I believe that it will remain so,” he concluded for the Total Podcast.
