Breaking Barriers: An Interview with Kateřina Svitková, the Pioneer of Czech Soccer

You can also listen to the interview in the audio version.

Whether you are a fan of Kateřina Svitková or a sharp critic, the 28-year-old pioneer deserves respect. For courage and her untrodden path. The four-time best Czech soccer player of the year, who was the first Czech to reach the English league, in which she won the title with Chelsea. As you can also tell from the interview, football is deep under his skin.

How many interview requests have you received in the last two weeks?

Are there more than when you moved to Chelsea?

Since Chelsea banned me from talking to the Czech journalists until they released it, and then the Czech journalists said they didn’t want it anymore, so yes.

How do you manage the increased media interest?

There has always been media interest, although not to the same extent as now. But it’s not like I said to myself: Jesus, I suddenly have to do interviews! Slowly every day I have one or two conversations, which is a lot. I have to reject some.

I had to wait in line too. You are the first woman on Czech television to comment on the top football event. Do you see yourself as a pioneer?

I feel the weight of the fact that no one has done this before and people will deal with it a lot. If I messed up, I don’t know how long it would take them to give another woman a chance. I try to do my best.

To open the door for others.

Yes, but it is clear that a lot of people perceive it as this was never here and what it is.

Euro 2024 at a glance

The European Football Championship runs from June 14 to July 14, 2024 in Germany. What is the full schedule and results of the tournament?

You are not afraid to step into the unknown. After all, you are the first Czech soccer player in the English league.

I’m not afraid, on the contrary, there are quite a few things that I try on my own. Although some fear has always been there and will be. I have big dreams, I want to achieve a lot in life and most of all I am hyperactive. I want to spend my time meaningfully. It’s not the first or last thing I’ll do like this.

Does fear help you do your best work?

Probably yes. When I started playing soccer, I was the only girl on the team and I lasted the whole elementary school. This already attracted a lot of attention from boys and girls, because then the boys had more fun with me than with other girls. I have attracted attention since I was a child, and not only in a positive way.

I also played football and we had a girl in the senior school team, Tereza, a curly blonde, a fast wing. She fit in perfectly with the teenagers. What you?

I think it’s good too, classic teenage stuff goes with it. You have to earn your place and show the guys that you have what it takes, that you won’t be the weak point of the team, which I did well. I already said in the first grade that I wanted to play football with the boys. At first they told me that I couldn’t, but then I showed them that I could kick it. Then they married me. After school, I also went to play with nine-year-olds, with much older boys, and they also took me to the party. It was great.

Even now at the microphone, you show the boys that you’ve got what it takes, you just changed your classmates for football fans.

Let’s hope so! Just because I play football doesn’t mean I’ll commentate well. It’s a completely different thing. But it’s still football and I think I understand that. Even girls can talk about it.

Which is still a topic for everyone. In general, it can be said that there is probably no commentator or football expert on TV that everyone likes. Especially the environment of social networks seems to me to be toxic in this regard, everyone criticizes everyone. How are you taking it?

I don’t look it up, but sometimes I read something when it jumps out at me. It’s often negative without meaning, it’s obvious that they mainly mind the fact that I’m a woman. I don’t take that. But if it has a point, I’ll think about it. For example, someone says that I am too loud, while others like it. I try to take it to heart depending on who says it. I’m doing it for the first time, and when I talked with experienced commentators, they all told me that only over time, after commentating hundreds of matches, will you find out what your style is.

I’m experimenting a bit with it. It’s not ideal, but I’ve been thrown into the water and I’m trying to swim. In one match I talk more, in another less, in another I say more statistics, in another I solve the game more. It is done for people, although you said well that everyone criticizes everyone and you will never please everyone. But it’s in everything you do. You should enjoy it, you should feel good about it, it should fulfill you and only then you should find out if it is successful for other people.

Life match – football special Seznam Správ

Photo: List of News, Shutterstock.com

Life match

During the European football championship, it is appropriate to recall some absolutely exceptional performances of Czech and Czechoslovakian football players, which were written down in the history of not only our football at the European championships. There are a lot of players who experienced a very special day in the national jersey, which you will never forget. In the Life Match special, we remind the notorious ones, but also the somewhat forgotten ones.

Can haters on the networks, anonymous criticism, spoil your mood?

Sometimes it spoils your mood, it takes away your appetite a bit, but it lasts a few minutes and I know what I want to do again.

I saw how in the studio you oppose former goalkeeper Zdenek Zlámal on the topic of goalkeeping. Does it take courage?

Bobby and I appear on Canal+, we’ve known each other for a while and he knows he can’t take it personally. If I have a different opinion, it’s better to say so and then he can explain to the viewer, from the goalkeeper’s point of view, why the goalkeeper on the field sees it that way.

Moreover, this mutual discussion is often the most interesting thing about it. It will offer more views.

What is the most difficult thing for you so far in your work as a co-commentator or TV expert?

The thing that’s really hard is that you don’t have a partner in the sense that you’re almost always with someone else in the studio. It also changes a lot in commenting. Everyone has it set up differently and you don’t know what to expect from whom. You’re always improvising. Even if you have a thought out sentence, if a colleague says it differently in front of you, you have to dig through it and you have to follow up. You see most of the people in the studio for the first time. Someone can take it offensively that I’m trying to open a debate on a topic, but I’m doing it for the viewer, not because I want to make myself a smartass and always oppose someone.

You also co-comment with Jaromír Bosák, a local personality. Good school?

Definitely, I try to look away from him as much as possible. But the other commentators are also very well prepared. Everyone has a different style. As a viewer, I always liked Jaromír Bosák, I enjoyed his commentary. But it depends on everyone’s taste.

Does careful preparation help you?

Honestly, I also thought that nothing would surprise me, but now I found out that when I have too much information, it is more difficult when commenting so that you can put it in there. Maybe the situation is right, but the main commentator is talking. It’s not ideal to try to cram that information in there.

You wink at Jaromír Bosák: Can I now?

Yeah, we give each other different signals, but sometimes I just watch the game. It is different to watch the match directly from the stadium, or just from the screen. I also commented on eight matches of the Czech women’s national team live, and it really makes a big difference. It’s much better to see it live, the intensity, the offsides, and then watch the replay. In short, have both.

Did Jaromír Bosák give you advice that you stick to like a holy rule?

He told me that it’s important that I enjoy it, that it’s like I’m commentating from the couch, which I still can’t do, I’m too nervous for that.

Did you play commentator as a child?

Not completely, although I commented on some events. But I really enjoyed listening to the commentators. I had in my head: Yes, I would like to do that someday! I would enjoy that, it must be nice. But I never thought it was that hard.

You probably didn’t even think that you would be sitting next to Jaromír Bosák and commenting on the European Football Championship with him.

Not at all! When I started playing football, I couldn’t see women playing on TV anywhere, because they didn’t show it anywhere. It wasn’t until I was 14 years old that they started showing different championships on Eurosport. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a professional soccer player, even though the boys made fun of me for not playing women’s soccer. I wanted to do something that I didn’t know if it would even happen if you don’t see it anywhere else. And yet it worked. Commenting is similar. I thought to myself: I would like to comment with Bosák sometime! Same with FIFA on PlayStation. I also thought that I would like to have my own character and play as myself. And it happened too. You never know what might happen.

The initial thought is essential. When was the first time you captured a big football tournament in your memory?

The first tournament I will never forget is the 2004 European Championship. After the defeat to Greece, I cried at home, I was sorry. At that time, I had only played football for a year. Man, goal! Unreal! Netherlands. Pardon.

It’s okay, I understand that you are looking even during the conversation. Back in 20 years…

That’s when I had a panic attack, how could we not advance. In that yelling, I realized: You know, that football means something to me, it’s thick! I’ll never get it out of my head. I remember watching that match at my grandmother’s house like it was yesterday.

That botched corner kick shouldn’t have happened, but let’s move on to better experiences. What excited you the most about this year’s Euro?

Wow, I thought, when Kai Havertz took the ball between two defenders behind his back. This is really very difficult. But otherwise, in terms of game elements, the championship is poor in nice individual events. Someone like Messi is missing there.

Is it silly to compare women’s and men’s football, considering how different men and women are physically and mentally?

If you look at what kind of husband the Turks gave themselves, you rarely see such crap in women, sorry. You can’t say that this wouldn’t happen in men’s football and this in women’s football. Errors are everywhere. The Frenchman Griezmann didn’t score a goal from the penalty spot either, it happens. Women’s football has soared and individual events are the same as the men’s. There are also worse and better matches like now in the championship. Sure, women won’t be as fast, but the technique is at a high level. It can be compared.

Women’s football is also on the rise in terms of interest and viewership. Is there still untapped potential in it?

It won’t grow that fast anymore, but it’s good that it found fans in some countries. The atmosphere in the stadiums is different, ultras don’t go there, but often families with children.

You are the four-time best female soccer player in the Czech Republic, you scored a beautiful goal in the quarter-finals of the Bayern Champions League. What do you consider the most?

I wanted to play for Chelsea, that was also my dream. It’s very difficult to get there and I still won the title with them. When I came to Slavia, they hadn’t won the title for nine years, but then they succeeded in my first season. I will never forget this. Not even the fact that we reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League three times. The guys didn’t do that either.

You returned from Chelsea on loan to Slavia. What next season?

I do not know yet. The transfer window has only just begun, it doesn’t end until mid-September. Anything can happen. It is held abroad and in the Czech Republic. I have a contract at Chelsea for another season.

That’s just the wrong thing. I’ve reached a point in my career where I don’t care how it turns out.

Well… Apart from the Champions League, I have already achieved my greatest achievements.

But you’re still young at the end of your career, aren’t you?

Not even anymore. You also think about the family, we women are stupid in this. After three and a half years in England, I had three operations, and I was threatened with a fourth. I have procrastinated for more than two years. Health comes first for me. I got to the stage where I couldn’t even take my dog ​​for a walk.

Knee, ankle, ligaments and muscles. Only physiotherapy in the Czech Republic helped me, I was immediately relieved. I’m thinking about this too.

Is it worth chasing after your child on the playground?

What does football mean to you?

All. I can’t imagine life without football. I am convinced that I will be in it for the rest of my life. Now it’s about how. If I’m going to play for a long time, train, if I’m going to be a fitness trainer, or a data analyst, because I have a degree, or a commentator. It’s hard to say, but I will definitely never leave football.