There will be a familiar face among the Slovan Bratislava ranks tomorrow night as Juraj Kucka gets ready to play against his former club AC Milan.
Kucka came through the academy at ZP Sport Podbrezova and then moved to Ruzomberok and Sparta Prague before making the leap over to Italy in 2011.
He did well in his four years with Genoa but there was some surprise when he ended up at Milan in 2015 for a fee widely reported to be in the region of €3m plus bonuses.
The Slovakia international ended up becoming a regular in the team and stayed for a couple of seasons before heading to Trabzonspor. He returned to Italy with Watford, and has been at Slovan for two years.
As a video at the time showed, it would be fair to say that the midfielder is relishing the chance to face off against his old side, even if Davide Calabria is the only first team player that remains from that time.
Kucka did an interview which was published on the official website of Slovan and he spoke about the contest against his former club, with his comments via Calciomercato.com.
“My arrival at Milan was extremely quick. I was ready to go to Turkey, I was lying on the sofa at home when the club called me saying they needed to talk to me before training,” he said.
“Shortly after, I received a call from an unknown number and, when I answered, on the other end was the general director of Milan, Adriano Galliani. He immediately told me that they were interested in me and that I should show up for a meeting that same evening. We agreed, and then I went there.
“I have supported the club since I was a child and I really enjoyed those two years. Wherever we went, there were always so many fans waiting for us. From a footballing point of view, I learned a lot. I was part of the starting line-up and played regularly in matches.”
In my opinion we should have kept Kucka for a few seasons more as he actually did pretty well for us and was a great servant to the club as he always gave his utmost.
After i saw the Slovan Bratislave vs FC Midtjylland I will say we should probably keep an eye out for Marko Tolić who was very dangerous from outside the box with his long shots and also scored two goals in that match.
Indeed. He was a proper tank.. our management has a habit of letting the grinta go and keeping the urgh, you know..
I’ll take a grinta who gives it all each game over a technical whoever who plays good about 20% of the season everyday
“I’ll take a grinta who gives it all each game over a technical whoever who plays good about 20% of the season everyday”
Ditto. And Kucka was a good all-rounder as well. Decent passes and could score goals too. He was at the club at the wrong time. Just like Bonaventura.
Yup.. both of them were great players in a very dull Milan. 3rd one probably romagnoli. Good he at least hot a scudeto out of his time here.
Indeed and I would also take 11 players who will always give their best all the time and die for the club while trying. Even with his technical deficiencies and fairly short height then one of my all time favorites was and always will be Gattuso, love that fellas tenacity and furious temperament 🙂
Same..it’s kinda ridiculous when you think about it. We had a technical pirlo, a midfielder machine seedorf. Yet, as far as I can see, people would long for a gattuso.
Funny how life works.
Players like that is generally underappreciated by a lot of people as they isn’t as flashy as the more technical gifted players but they brings something fundamental to all teams. Just take a look at Real Madrid when they sold Makelele certainly that wasn’t a smart move by them and cost them the following years.
Same here. My all time favourites are Rino and Seedorf.
For me Van Basten will always be my all-time favorite player with Maldini and Baresi coming close but those players was aliens amongst people. After them Rino and Seedorf are amongst players that follows and I always adored the dutchman a lot. When we signed a bunch of dutch players in the mid 90ies he was the player I wanted the most and was quite disapointed that he ended up with Sampdoria and then Madrid and of all places inter but in the end it all panned out right. Graceful hardworking player with great vision and passing and always seemed like a gentleman off the pitch.
Kucka and Bonaventura, the most underrated players from our banter era. Would easily slot in today as well.
Bonaventura would have become a Milan legend if he was here earlier (or later). The teammates he had prevented him from achieving big things.
Please Acmilan should not sign any winger, attacking midfield or central midfielder who does not have serie a experience is very important so that we will not be waiting for the player to adapt when we need the player in the pitch to be effective let’s take note of this.
Our work horse then. Man was a tireless worker and really helpful when focused on his duties.
Lacked severely in technical abilities (as were many banter era players) but bled for the shirt. I miss guys like these. He really fought hard everytime despite his limitations and that’s really what fans want to see. Not just phoning it in. Actually look like you want to play for the club.