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Roman Bednar interview

Dave Bowler

4/3/08

The road that leads to your door is, traditionally, long and winding. Just ask Paul McCartney. But if your name is Roman, it’s got to be dead straight hasn’t it? So come with us for a walk down memory lane and see how Bednar came to play in England. Here’s the thing. Time moves fast these days. They’ll tell you that minutes still comprise 60 seconds, that hours have 60 minutes, that days have 24 hours, but I’m here to tell you,

they’re lying. Time is getting more and more compressed, the days are getting denser as we all cram more and more living into shorter and shorter spaces. It’s nearly 19 years since they knocked the Berlin Wall down but it was only last week - that’s how quick time is going.It was the fall of the Wall that really started to accelerate things, a changed world, changed realities, changed enemies, changed movements.
Suddenly we weren’t afraid of the bomb, but we were terrified by cheap labour. The world wanted its MTV, the world wanted 24/7 entertainment, the world didn’t want to sleep, it wanted to watch itself wake up from history.
Internet, cable, satellite, satnav, satdance, iPod, uPod, theyPod, even the verbs have changed and if you don’t keep up with the times, time will run you down.

It’s kind of hard to remember that there was a time before the Wall, a time when footballers like Roman Bednar would have been looked upon as extraordinarily exotic and slightly scary, a beast from beyond the Iron Curtain. A time when he might have found his way into western football, but would more likely have been left to play in Czechoslovakia.
Even that’s an indicator of how things have changed because Czechoslovakia is no more. The land where Roman was born has disappeared as the nation divided in two, a partition that followed the Velvet Revolution, a non-violent overthrow of the Communist government, a peaceful transition that was in sharp contrast to the horrors elsewhere in eastern Europe.
Certainly for Bednar, there was nothing about the transition to leave any scars.

“I don’t think things changed too much when the country split up, not for me because all my family was in the Czech Republic. Some families were split in the two countries, some in Czech Republic, some in Slovakia, so people like that were a little bit unhappy, but most welcomed it because it was what Slovakia wanted. They wanted to become their own country and the Czechs
basically said “Alright”, it was simple. The good thing was that it all happened peacefully, there was none of the fighting and things that went on in Yugoslavia, and I think this is the most important thing. Czech people and Slovakian people, there are no problems between us, so that is very positive.

“It is hard to say because you only know your own life, but I don’t know if mine was that different to teenagers anywhere else in the world. I went to school, went to football training, go home at 7 o’clock at night, dinner,
then sometimes fall asleep in front of the TV because I was tired from all the training. Sometimes I’d see friends, but my life was really school, training, school, training!

“Football was everything. I started playing from six years old when my parents took me to my first training session, I just knew that that was what I would do one day, that I would play football. CAFC Prague was the local team that I went to play for when I was young, I had a great time there for nine years altogether as a youth player, I scored a lot of goals there, I was a young star! Goalscorers always get the attention! I was always a striker as a boy, I always scored goals, that was what I wanted to do.”

The young Bednar showed plenty of talent and before long, he was attracting the attention of one of Prague’s major outfits.

“I went to Bohemians Prague, a bigger club, and was there for four years from when I was 15. I still didn’t have a professional contract and the gaffer took me for pre-season training, I wasn’t really fit at all, I was a
lazy teenager! He didn’t like me and he said he didn’t want me in the team.
But after he left Bohemians, he moved into the second league, to FK Mlada Boleslav, and he saw me play a game for Bohemians in the youth league. We played against the best team in the league, we drew 3-3 and I scored two goals and was man of the match. Afterwards, he said, “He’s not bad after all!” and asked me to go there and play. Bohemians were a little bit angry because they could not understand that I didn’t have a proper contract, but for me, it was too late then, I did not want to stay because I had decided to go to Mlada because the gaffer believed in me. I played there three years, two years in the second league and then we were promoted, so I had a
year in the top league, the Gambrinus Liga. I played 22 games, scored six goals, I was voted the “Discovery of the Season” and from there I signed to Hearts.”

Football in the Czech Republic is something of a curate’s egg, some good, some bad. Few countries in recent times have produced so many gifted footballers, equipped to play all over Europe with great success. The national side has been very successful, qualifying for the latter stages of tournaments with monotonous regularity, often threatening to do even more.
Yet at club level, they’ve made little impression, perhaps because they are victims of their own success, exporting their best players across the continent. But there are other structural problems too, as Roman explains.

“In Czech football, there have been problems a few years ago with corruption, nobody speaks about it too much but there are a lot of good people now who are trying to do some things about it. But on the pitch, the quality of football has always been good, we have produced a lot of very good players over the years, but we all move out to different countries so maybe the standard is not as high in the leagues as it could be. But it means there are always places that young players need to come through and
fill, so I think this is one reason why there are so many Czech footballers.
When we finished second in Euro ‘96, I think everything started from there, there was more interest and we have done very well in tournaments ever since.

“For me, I think as people, we have a good heart, we are determined, we are a people who are fighters. I think that is from all the years under the Russian system, and we had to fight to be who we were, and things come from
that experience. I think we are determined people. Me, I am a very bad loser, I hate losing! Sometimes, I am very angry about it, but it is my nature. Whatever I do, I need to compete and do everything I can to win and if I don’t, I’m unhappy. Sometimes people say I am a bad loser, like that’s a bad thing! I don’t understand it. I want to get better, I want to be the best, I want to be first, or why are you in a competition? I think that has helped me to have success.

“I think it has helped me first in Scotland and now in England. I always wanted to play outside the country and try different countries. When I was young, I was just thinking, “I want to be a star player!” But as I grew up,
I wanted to move abroad because of the quality of the football, just to prove things to myself, that I could play in the best leagues and do well.”

His first opportunity to impress beyond the Czech border came in the SPL with a move to Hearts as Romanov’s revolution began to cause consternation amid the Old Firm. It’s a period that Roman clearly relished.

“Hearts was the best time ever when I first went there. It was all so new, I did not speak any English, but it was not important because we understood each other on the pitch. There were 11, 12, 13 fantastic players and we just fit together. I got a knee injury after seven games, but I was still part of things at the club and on matchdays. After nine games we had seven wins and two draws and then they sacked George Burley as manager! I went to the
pre-match meal before the game and I was asking, “Where is George?” The guys told me he was sacked and I just could not believe it. I remember, I really wanted to cry, it was crazy because everything was going so well and just like that, it was finished.

“We ended up 20 points behind Celtic that season, but still we were runners-up and we won the Scottish Cup but it was all thanks to George because even after he left, we held on to that spirit. The players were fantastic, we were very together, but after that season, it got more difficult because after George, there has never really been a gaffer, the chairman picked the team, there were lots of changes at the club, and we lost what we had which was sad because it was so great. I hope things get back to how they were there.
“Winning the Scottish Cup was fantastic, it was amazing. It was a crazy cup run! I came back from injury to play in the quarter-final against Partick, I came on after an hour. As soon as I came on, my first touch, they took a fast free-kick which hit me because I couldn’t get out of the way and the referee gave me a yellow card. After ten minutes, I got the ball in the area, I pushed it too far in front of me and the ‘keeper got there first. He got a little bit of a touch on me and I swear, it was my first dive and the only one I have ever done in my life, but he did touch me so I thought if I go down it must be a penalty. But instead he gave me another yellow card and I was sent off. It looks absolutely terrible on TV! So I missed the semi-final against Hibernian which was a great game, but at least I got back for the Cup Final, 45,000 people in Hampden, 32,000 for Hearts, the rest for Gretna, it was amazing. We were so tired because we had to fight so much to finish second and this was a week after the season, we were just exhausted.
But I’m so happy we won, even on penalties, because I think we deserved it after the season we had.

“After that, last season was hard, and it was time for me to go away. I could not concentrate on my football anymore and I must admit I was not so professional either. I try to be honest and a good person and if I am in a place where I am not happy and where I don’t think things are being done the right way, then it is very hard for me to play my best. It was time to leave and I was very lucky that I came to this club (West Bromwich Albion). You see me now, I am smiling all the time. I come into work at the training ground, it is unbelievable freezing cold outside but I am singing as I come in!

“I was still a little bit injured when I came here and I was worried about that because I couldn’t play, but the guys just welcomed me here, it was fantastic, they laugh and joke, they call me a terrorist, it’s very funny!
The good thing was I had started to make my comeback from injury, so it wasn’t like that I got injured here, I was on my way to being fit again. You can sometimes get pushed to be in the side when you aren’t really ready, that
happened at Hearts because they needed me, and the second season when they were doing that, I didn’t play so well because I wasn’t fit.

“When I came to West Bromwich, Tony Mowbray, the gaffer, said to me to take the time I needed, make sure I was really fit and strong and then I would get my chance. That was so great, and every word he has said has been true. It couldn’t have been any better, just from the very beginning here it has been unbelievable. The players here are great, the spirit is amazing, we laugh so much, we all enjoy being here, and being with each other and this is

very important, this helps you do good things on the pitch and to get through difficult times.

“And as a striker, it is a great team to be in I must say. It’s a great, exciting time, but there is a lot to do still. All we do is look forward, work towards the next game and just hope that everything will finish as we want. Promotion is the most important thing, but going to Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final is incredible.

“Last year at Hearts, sometimes I was scared because nobody helped you on the pitch, it was so quiet but here, everyone is talking, encouraging, and we just enjoy every moment on the pitch. It is so good to be a part of it.”

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