Only for the second time in history, the poll for the best football coach of the year in Slovakia had two winners. Francesco Calzona (Slovakia) and Vladimír Weiss Sr. (Slovak Bratislava) received the award together on Monday. The last time two coxswains took the award was in 2017, when Ján Kozák and Pavel Hapal had the same number of votes. He responded to two successful coaches on the portal’s video and Stano Lobotka.
The atmosphere between the pair of coaches was not ideal, especially when the Italian arrived on the bench of the Falcons. Despite this, Weiss denied the national team luck in the play-offs and promotion to the World Cup after 16 years, while he led the team in the premiership. While it was a first for Calzona and he won it as the first coach outside of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Weiss was looking forward to the sixth time in a row, the eighth time since 2009, when the award came under the management of SFZ, and the tenth time in total. Premier awards came during the time of Artmedia Petržalek, with whom he scored points in the Champions League.
Dávid Hancko succeeded Stanislav Lobotka as Footballer of the Year for 2025. The Napoli midfielder finished second in the poll and thus did not follow up on his triumphs from the previous two years.
“I’m happy to be in the top three, as I said on the podium. I think that Dávid had an excellent season, either in the national team or in the club. Whether it was at Feyenoord or now at Atlético, he proved his quality everywhere. I personally wish him the best, because he is not only a great football player, but also a good person. In my opinion, he deserved this award. In such a survey, everyone has their own opinion and everyone prefers a different type of player,” Lobotka assessed, adding that the playoff is the most important for him at the moment: “However, for me, the most important thing is that we win on Thursday, and I believe that the number two will also shine with our score.”
As we mentioned in the introduction, Lobotka also commented on the winning of two coaches. When the sports editor asked him from behind what he had to say about the award for both coaches, unexpected and funny words came out. “I think it’s specific when two coaches are in first place. Maybe each of the experts likes a different style of football, maybe prefers someone else, so it’s personal. I think both deserved to win. For me, coach Weiss is the best in Slovakia, as far as I know. And coach Calzona is… uh, the best Italian coach in Slovakia,” he said and the reporters burst into laughter.
“I played well, didn’t I? I even sweated,” Lobotka’s eyes widened and he grabbed his forehead. His answer became a hit on the Internet and a section of the video was taken over by the Instagram page. You can find the original video at the beginning and the modified version at the end of the article!
