A brief time in Romania ended with Trebor Mahtal winning the 18th domestic title of his 27-year Football Manager career. And with time pressing, the 66-year-old Zambian stood down as manager of Farul Constanta to begin the search for his 17th club.
Several jobs stood out upon his resignation but the clubs took their sweet time, so Mahtal flew to Brazil to do some punditry work at the 2050 World Cup. He got to witness two of the highlights of the tournament in the second round as Senegal beat the holders on penalties and Croatia beat France 2-1, before Mexico beat Netherlands 3-2. The shocks ended there and the semi finals both went to extra time, with holders Belgium beating Argentina 2-1 and Spain beating Germany 2-0. And Spain went on to win their 4th World Cup by beating Belgium 3-1.
His time in Brazil was rudely interrupted by a call from Slovenia, swiftly followed by calls from Croatia and Poland. And all thee clubs eventually gave him a decision to make. Mahtal was most interested in going to Croatia with Hajduk but discovered the club was £30m in the red while Polish side Legia were also struggling financially and rejected his application. That meant it was time for Mahtal to return for some unfinished business in Slovenia, having departed Domzale trophyless back in 2033.
Who Are NK Aluminij?
Nogometni klub Aluminij Kidričevo is a professional club based in the town of Kidricevo. The club was founded in 1946 and started this save as a newly promoted side in Slovenia’s First League. However, it received a tycoon takeover from German president Sacha Fleischmann back in 2033 and has gradually grown as a club ever since, winning its maiden title in 2042 and adding four more. Indeed, Mahtal was well aware of the club as it kept coming in for his players over the last decade or so.
Mahtal was surprised to discover Aluminij had £53m in the bank, a transfer budget of £16.7m and a weekly wage budget of £933k, of which £200k was spare. Amusingly, the club president built a new stadium in 2036 and named it after himself, so the club plays at the 12,602-capacity Sascha Fleischmann Arena. That’s supported by solid infrastructure of 20 youth facilities, 19 youth recruitment, 16 training facilities and 14 junior coaching.
Mahtal recognised a few faces in Joachim Juul, the winger he converted into a midfielder at FC Midtjylland who’s now 30, his former Shamrock right back Chris Cresser, his former Slavia striker David Weiss and centre back Lukás Mares. However, the best players at Aluminij were ludicrously overpaid Barcelona graduate attacker Joan Ramón Solis, wingers Denis Toplak, who broke his ankle in pre-season then got stripped of the captaincy for good measure, and Benes Vaclav, and midfielders Magique Camara and Tim Marsh. The rebuild continued in January as Mahtal sold Camara and a few backups and brought in 6ft 6in striker Alonzo Cossio for £1.3m from Universidad Católica and centre back Naim Michaux for £6.5m from Anderlecht.
Another Taste of Mahtal’s Favourite Competition
Mahtal’s Aluminij reign began in the first qualifying round of the Europa League, which they eased through 6-1 against Dun. Streda before a 4-1 defeat to Young Boys. An easier tie followed as they dropped into the ECL and breezed past Serbian side Radnik Surdulica 4-1 then slightly surprisingly defeated SK Sturm 3-1 to reach the league phase.
Aluminij began the league phase with two 1-0 wins at Finnish side KäPa and at home to Mahtal’s former side Crvena zvezda 1-0. They continued strongly with a 3-0 win at Genk, a 2-2 at home to Brondby and a 1-0 win at Gibraltar side Magpies, before a 1-0 loss at Sparta Praha. And that sent them through in 8th place, having only scored 8 and conceded 3 in their boring six matches.
Belgian side Standard followed in the last 16 and they looked down and out with a 2-0 away defreat. But Mahtal’s feisty halftime teamtalk (rant) got the desired response as Solís’ brace earned a 4-2 vicotry to take them to penalties. And Martin Falster was the hero as he saved two Standard penalties and Aluminij scored all of theirs to win it 4-2. They got the toughest quarter final against Brighton, but an early goal at home and Toplak’s second-half winner nicked a 2-1 home win. However, they finally succombed to a 3-1 defeat in England.
Flying Start To Mahtal’s Slovenian Return
Last season, Aluminij dropped to third behind Maribor and Mahtal’s former club Domzale. But they come into the campaign as 1/4 favourites ahead of Maribor (7/1) and Domzale (16/1) and Sascha expects Mahtal to reclaim the Slovenian title. And a reminder that the nine top-tier Slovenian sides play each other four times.
The Slovenian also started stupidly early on 17 July. But Aluminij started with a bang as Weiss’ brace led a 6-1 thumping of Bistrica away before hammering Bravo 4-2 and Celje 2-0 away. An early reunion with Domzale followed and Mahtal’s new side beat his old one 4-2 led by left winger Stanislav Breda’s brace, before falling to a first defeat 3-2 at Mura and drawing 2-2 at home to holders Maribor. But their form remained strong, including Solís scoring both in a 2-1 win at Olimpija to send his side top of the table after the first round of fixtures. They continued in that vein of form, including Weiss bagging a hat trick in a 5-1 away thumping of Domzale and Toplak returning to score the only goal at home to Bravo.
That took Aluminij a huge 12 points clear of Maribor heading into the winter break. But they didn’t let up when the league resumed in late January as striker Oliver Sutic bagged a hat trick in a 6-1 thrashing of strugglers Bistric, which set a new First Division record of 13 consecutive victories. That record was extended as early Weiss and Vaclav goals edged a 2-1 win at 2nd-place Maribor, which moved Aluminij a massive 17 points clear after 20 games!
The winning streak eventually ended but a 2-0 win at home to Celje saw Aluminij wrap up the Slovenian title at the end of March with six games remaining. And they went on to destroy the rest of the league, winning it by 21 points with 94 points after 30 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats, scoring 99 and conceding 37. Weiss led the way with 27 goals, which was just 2 short of the all-time record of 29 set back in 1992, and 9 MOTM awards, Cresser got a league-high 13 assists, Falster topped the chart with 12 clean sheets and Solis was the best player with a 7.59 average rating.
Celebrating Slovenian Domination
Mahtal knew he’d walked into a good team in Slovenia, but wasn’t expecting the level of domination his Aluminij squad delivered. Weiss topped their goalscoring chart with an impressive 34 in 49 followed by Solís (25), Sutic (13), Vaclav (12) and Toplak (10), and Cresser led the way with 15 assists followed by Breda and Vaclav (14), Solís (10), Toplak (9) and Weiss and holding midfielder Tomás Fotr (8).
The latest league success saw Mahtal win a title in an 11th different nation across Europe, leaving titles in Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Poland and Turkey at the top of his hitlist. And, unsurprisingly, the latest title meant it was time for him to move on so on his 66th birthday he stood down as manager of Aluminij. He departs the club with an incredible 75% win ratio after 314 days and 56 games in charge, of which he won 42, drew 7 and lost 7, scoring 137 and conceding 59.
But which country would be next on the adventure as Mahtal goes in search of his 18th club? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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