Jaroslav Zelený Turns Down European Championship Nomination Due to Illness

Jaroslav Zelený confirmed today that he was approached for an additional nomination for the European Championship in Germany. However, he had to turn it down because of the fever he brought back from his holiday in Turkey. The 31-year-old defender said after the victory in the first match of the summer training against AIK Stockholm (3:1) that he was able to cope with the absence from the championship.

The native of Hradec Králové was not included in the original nomination of coach Ivan Hašek. After the injury of Michal Sadílek, the implementation team of the national team turned to him. “They contacted me. Unfortunately, we were just returning from a vacation in Turkey and I had a fever. The next day I went to the doctor. Unfortunately, the results were not good, so they called Šéva (midfielder Petr Ševčík from Slavia),” confirmed Zelený at the press conference after the match.

He thus lost his first major tournament, while he was already in the running for the original nomination. “It’s a shame, everyone would like to watch the Euros. But I’m not the youngest anymore and I can cope with it better than before,” said the player, who has two championship titles with Slavia and Sparta.

He only watched the failure in the championship as a spectator. “The first match against the Portuguese was definitely not ideal. It was a tough opponent, but I still expected more. Then we had to beat Georgia. We have to convert chances. That’s mainly why we didn’t advance, because the duel with Turkey would have looked different. wanted to apologize to the boys, I agree that the referee didn’t help us in the last match and partly got into it,” he evaluated the performance of his teammates.

“Overall, it’s disappointing, we had a group to progress. But I don’t want to criticize. If I was part of the team there, I would also be getting a lens now. It’s just a shame and a failure, now we have to go to the World Cup,” he added.

Sparta begins a new era after the departure of Brian Priske, who was replaced by his previous assistant Lars Friis. “Nothing will fundamentally change, which I think was also the plan of the management. We will continue on the set path. We managed to supplement the implementation staff, personally I am now extremely satisfied. I hope that what has been started will continue,” emphasized Zelený.