After leading BATE Borisov to a record-break 20th Belarussian title in 2061, Trebor Mahtal resigned and went in search of his 26th and final job as a Football Manager. Now aged 77, Mahtal was 13 games short of 2,000 matches as a manager, and decided to wait for an interesting job across Europe to go out with a flourish.
However, nothing interesting came up in the second half of the 61/62 campaign so he waited until the summer, by which time BATE were somehow 11th and sacked their new manager after 12 games! A few interesting opportunities came up, including Mahtal’s former club FC Midtjylland, Turkish giants Fenerbahce and Czech club Baník Ostrava. Mahtal was open to all three, but the opportunity to manage one player took him back to Czechia 13 years on from managing Slavia Praha.
Who Are Baník Ostrava?
Baník Ostrava is a professional club from the city of Ostrava, . The club was founded as SK Slezská Ostrava in September 1922 by miners from the Kamenec coal mining settlement in Ostrava. It started out as a poor club that didn’t even have its own pitch until 1925, and even then it was a stony pitch that didn’t meet the requirements of local officials. The club gradually gained popularity and adopted the name DSO Baník Ostrava in 1952. It first won the Czechoslovak title in 1976, which ushered in a Golden Era led by players like Rostislav Vojacek representing the national team. Since the start of the Czechia title, Baník won the title in 2004, which was its only success to the start of this save.
Baník has added one more Czech title during this save, winning the league in 2051 and coming runner-up nine more times. It also won the Europa League in 2056, defeating Lech in the Final. The club plays at the 15,123-capacity Mestetsky Stadion – Aréna Vítkovice, which was built in 1938, alongside great facilities of 20 youth recruitment, 19 junior coaching, 18 youth facilities and 16 training facilities. Baník have £12m in the bank, a transfer budget of £3.5m and wage budget of £525k per week, of which £30k was spare.
Mahtal wasted no time making his mark on the Baník squad, selling 14 players for £15m. But the main reason for moving back to Czechia was to work with striker Ivan Josimovic again. He was the best player at the club along with midfielder Johnny Bedini, centre back Tomas Hradisky, holding midfielder Shuto Doi, goalkeeper Abed Nahshony and full backs Juraj Masulovic and Robert van den Broek. They also had a mass of exciting youngsters in full back Martin Hrdy, attackers Filip Müller, Ondrej Hruska, Aston Gleadle and Jan Rosenberger and centre back Ales Vencl. Mahtal added to that by loaning in Dortmund winger Dorde Maric and Atlético striker Ramón Pereira, who just scored on his debut for Spain.
Mahtal went with one of his favourite tactics, slightly tweaking the 4-2-4 he’d used at Panathinaikos. Doi starts as the holding midfielder in behind Bedini with Maric and Nikodin Zivaljic out wide and Pereira supporting Josimovic up top.
Mahtal Returns To Czechia
Baník were third favourites for the Czech First Division with title odds of 11/2 behind Slavia Praha (11/10) and Sparta Praha (9/4). And Josimovic is the second-best player in the league behind Slavia’s winger Jofré Salavedra.
Mahtal’s return to Czechia saw Josimovic bag a hat trick to down Mlada Boleslav 3-1, they lost 2-0 at Sparta but Josimovic scored another hat trick in a 4-1 thumping of Ceské. The bright start continued as before Mahtal’s 2,000th game as a manager ended in a 1-0 defeat at Kromeriz. He then faced a first meeting with former side Slavia and got a good start as Zivaljic headed home the opener but Slavia nicked a late equaliser. Baník’s flying form continued, including Zivaljic, Duric and Pereira strikes inspiring a 3-0 home win over Sparta, which took them 5 points clear heading into the winter break.
Champions League Challenge
Baník entered the Champions League second qualifying round with a tough tie against Feyenoord. But they put in a superb home performance to dominate with 26 shots to five and win 3-0 through Hradisky, Bedini and Josimovic then won 2-1 in Rotterdam. An even tougher challenge followed as they faced Porto, who led the first leg in Czechia through Mahtal’s former Kobenhavn winger Tomislav Raic-Sudar but substitute Hruska earned a late draw. But Rosenberger scored early in Portugal and a superb defensive effort helped them hold Porto off for a 1-0 success. That teed up a clash with Mahtal’s former side Crvena zvezda in the Playoff round. Pereira and Bedini put them 2-0 up just after haltime in Serbia before Red Star got a late goal back, and Maric’s first goal for the club earned a 1-1 at home to send Baník into the Champions League league phase.
The bookies gave Baník 10,000/1 odds to win the Champions League. However, Mahtal felt they had a half chance at qualification given some tough fixtures were surrounded by three against clubs from Croatia, which is 4th in the coefficients ahead of France and Germany. Baník began with a solid 0-0 at Malmo then Josimovic and Pereira goals edged a victory at Hajduk Split. Pereira scored twice against his parent club as they lost 4-2 at home to Atlético, now the most reputable team in the world, before an unlucky 1-0 loss at Tottenham, who only scored in the 85th minute.
Another Croatian clash followed at home to Mahtal’s former club Rijeka. Baník began well as Josimovic swept home superbly from 18 yards, Bedini scored an exact replica 17 minutes later and Maric made it three inside half an hour from a clever short corner routine. Striker Dimitris Panourgias got a goal back but Zivaljic finished off a fantastic passing move after an hour to seal the victory. Their third Croatian meeting followed at home to Dinamo and centre back Mihael Duric and Pereira earned a 2-0 success. Those successes were crucial as they Baník 11th with two tough games remaining, but they matched Bayern away and earned a 0-0 before losing 2-0 at home to Juventus to finish in an impressive 17th.
Another tricky tie followed as Baník faced Dortmund in the playoff round. The home leg was first and Baník started superbly then took advantage as Maric curled home from the edge of the box. They doubled their lead as Rios’ chipped pass was smashed home brilliantly on the volley by Zivaljic, which was enough for a fantastic 2-0 victory. And a solid defensive effort and Pereira’s late goal secured a surprise 3-0 aggregate success.
That victory teed up a tough last 16 tie with Atlético, which proved a step too far for Baník. They got dominated at home but only lost 2-0 thanks to a very dodgy late penalty and were much improved in Spain as Rosenberger came off the bench to score a late equaliser to draw 2-2, but exit in the last 16.
Massive Striker Setbacks
Mahtal’s plans took a huge hit as he saw star man Josimovic’s minimum fee clause matched for the second time in two years and he moved to Saudi for £10.5m. Mahtal looked at a few options but chose not to replace him directly, instead giving the promising Rosenberger an opportunity with support from Gleadle and Müller. But he used some of the cash to smash the club’s transfer record of £3.5m set back in 2056 by signing River midfielder Claudio Rios for up to £10m.
Life without Josimovic began with comfortable 3-0 wins at Chrudim courtesy of a Pereira brace and at home to Sigma Olomouc led by Maric’s double. But a 1-0 defeat at Slavia saw their lead cut to just 2 points with seven regular season games remaining.
Baník got back on track with six different scorers in a 6-1 destruction of Slovan Liberec and maintained their 2-point advantage. However, they suffered another massive setback as Pereira damaged his cruciate ligaments in a 2-1 win over Plzen and returned to Atlético prematurely. The players rallied and maintained their winning run, even though Pereira’s replacement Gleadle also got injured, opening up a 4-point gap at the end of the 30-game campaign.
That took Baník into the Championship Group and a close title fight with Slavia, which began with games against the big two in Czechia.
Game 1 – Slavia Praha (2nd, home): A potential title decider saw Baník welcome Mahtal’s former club to Ostrava. Baník got a great start as Rosenberger headed home Müller’s cross inside 3 minutes. But Slavia grew into the game and, really annoyingly, equalised in the 92nd minute.
Game 2 – Sparta Praha (4th, home): Another home game against a Praha rival started in the same way as the previous one with Rios this time crossing for Rosenberger to head home from close range. Sparta responded immediately and Baník battered them with seven shots in the next 15 minutes, eventually taking one as Hradisky headed home from a corner. Müller then smashed a shot off the bar and Maric hit the post but they somehow only led 2-1 after 12 shots to one. But Maric made up for it by scoring 4 minutes after half time before Zivaljic killed the game with a 20-yard screamer.
Game 3 – Viktoria Plzen (6th, away): That big win meant Baník could wrap up the title with a win at Plzen if Slavia lost at Sparta. And they again started brightly as Zivaljic put Müller in to finish after 70 seconds. However, they yet again conceded their opponent’s first shot and first two on target. They missed a mass of chances and somehow lost 2-1. However, Slavia were also losing 1-0, until they again scored an injury time equaliser to draw 1-1, cutting Baník’s lead to 3 points.
Game 4 – Karviná (3rd, home): Baník only needed 3 points against Karviná to win the league, given positions are decided by league points in the regular season. Mahtal had to change things as Zivaljic was suspended, which saw Müller move to the right and Gleadle come in up top. Baník again started brightly and Rosenberger finished a nice team move on 14 minutes then Bedini smashed home a penalty won by Maric five minutes later. Maric crashed a 30-yard free kick against the post before Rosenberger finished off a devastating counter attack. Slavia beat Plzen 5-2 so Baník still led by 3 points and effectively won the title despite the lack of a trophy presentation.
Game 5 – Slovan Liberec (5th, away): Baník again conceded the first shot they faced but fired back in style through Maric’s 25-yard screamer, only to concede the second shot they faced. Their poor performance continued as they gave away a penalty in first half injury time, but Bedini converted one 20 minutes after the break and Zivaljic made it 3-3 with a huge backpost header 2 minutes later. That rapid fightback oddly killed the game off, but it was all Baník needed.
Baník Ostrava lifted their third Czech First Division title!
Baník won the title by 3 points from Sparta, finishing on 82 points after 27 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats, scoring 82 and conceding 29. Maric and Zivaljic led the assists chart with 13 and 11 while Zivaljic was the 5th top scorer with 14, which was one more than Josimovic, who left in January!
Celebrating More Czech Success
14 years on from winning back-to-back titles at Slavia, Mahtal returned to haunt his former club with a Baník team packed full of exciting youngsters. After a couple of premature departures, wide men Zivaljic and Maric were Baník’s star man with 18 goals and 14 assists and 15 goals and 17 assists respectively. Rosenberger stepped up with 13 goals and 4 assists, Bedini got 11 goals and 10 assists from midfield and 18-year-old Müller scored 7 with 4 assists.
Mahtal had presumed this would be his final year in management. However, he’d spotted a few exciting youth prospects to add to the homegrown talent at Baník and the board offered him a new one-year contract, so he decided to continue for one more season.
Would Mahtal enjoy even more success in his final season? Join us on tomorrow to find out!
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