After the world cup last month in Tunisia, Czech national team players, Jan Koudelka, and keepr Ondřej Bíro received an offer to join the professional American Arena Soccer. Major Arena Soccer League is played by sixteen teams (fourteen American and two Mexican) divided into four divisions and attracts foreign players, mostly from Brazil, who earn an average $3,000 a month.
Koudelka, the 25 years old striker, sounds excited about the opportunity: “Of course I´m delighted, but I don´t know anything specific, just that someone told it to our team leader Jakub Štefek. I would really like to try it, but it depends not only on the salary. It could be a tremendous experience to play there.”
The Czech striker experienced arena minifootball in the US less than three years ago at the first World Cup, where the Czech team finished fifth and playing with sideboards was very unusual for him. “I liked the big pitch, but the problem is you have to watch the ball all the time because it rebounds from the boards quite quickly. The spectators were amazing, they enjoy it quite a lot there”. remembers.
Koudelka didn´t miss any of the last successes of the Czech national team, he has European bronze from Hungary and silver from June in Brno, now he added the world´s gold after scoring 4 goals in the world cup. “This is our greatest achievement, but we can´t come to Euro 2018 and say: ‘we are the best – we have won the world championship’ – We have to fight during the tournament like everyone else and stay the same. We´ll see next year on the European championship because it is a long time ahead and the teams will be better again. One never knows what can happen in a year”.