Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal had built a 40-year career around bringing promising talents to Europe’s less fancied leagues and taking on the continent’s elite. Now aged 78, it was only natural for Mahtal to have set his sights on retirement but – and this will give away how early I was writing this post – we just received news of the delay to FM25’s release, so he cast those thoughts to one side and began dreaming of challenging Europe’s elite with Baník Ostrava.
Baník began the 2063/64 campaign with £63m in the bank and a £26m transfer kitty. That was boosted by selling squad players like holding midfielder Shuto Doi, goalkeeper Lukas Ruzicka and full back Robert van den Broek for £7m.
Mahtal put that to use by snapping up three exciting wonderkids. The biggest arrival was brilliantly named Belgian attacker Hendrikus Van der Hayden for a new club record £15m from Club Brugge. He was joined by two more special talents in midfielder John Jaime Barbat, who becomes the best player at the club, for £2.5m from Atlético Nacional and striker Jake LaRoche for £6m from Colombus. Also arriving were winger Trond Amundsen for £4.5m from Rosenborg, midfielder Emanuel Bäckström for £3.5m from Norrkoping, midfielder/striker Aruna Oussou for £3.7m from CSKA-Sofia, centre back Nicolae Chiriac for £3.4m from Farul Constanta and goalkeeper Kylian Herault for £5.5m from Partizan.
Mahtal stuck with the successful 4-2-4 approach from last season but tweaked a few roles to suit the incoming players. He wasn’t quite sure whether to play Van der Heyden up front or out wide, but Barbat comes in as a Libero stepping into the space behind Claudio Ríos and Johnny Bedini, LaRoche will play as a deep lying forward and youngsters Ondrej Hruska and Martin Hrdy come in as starting left winger and right back respectively.
Czech Title Defence
The Czech bookies have Baník as 12/5 second favourites to defend their title behind Slavia at 9/5. However, Van der Heyden and Barbat are the best two players in the league, so they’re probably wrong.
Baník’s defence began at Brno, and they faced early pressure before Claudio Ríos whipped in a goal-of-the-month-winning free kick. The hosts deservedly equalised but Van der Heyden headed home an 87th-minute debut winner, which made up Mahtal’s mind about him being a striker. That was further confirmed as he bagged a home debut hat trick and LaRoche got the other two in a 5-2 thrashing of Ústi nad Labem. The new boys continued to impress as Baník won their first six games, including van der Hayden opening the scoring and Amundsen’s first two goals for the club in a 3-0 win over Mladá Boleslav.
They dropped points in a 2-2 at Sparta Praha but continued to impress, including Oussou and young left back Lubmoir Novotny’s first senior goal securing a 2-0 win at Slavia. Baník reached new levels as they annihilated Ceské a new league record 9-0 led by the improving Bäckström scoring four. Van der Heyden didn’t score or assist in that game and clearly took exception, taking centre stage with a first-half hat trick as Baník ended 2063 with a 5-2 win at Slovacko. That took Caník into 2064 still unbeaten and with a 10-point lead over Sparta, while supposed favourites Slavia were 22 points behind in 5th.
Seeking European Improvement
Mahtal’s Champions League hopes began in the second qualifying round and they breezed past Újpest 5-0. CSKA-Sofia were seen off 4-2 on aggregate before a wild 4-3 defeat at Anderlecht in the playoff first leg was followed by a 1-1 at home without the injured Van der Heyden.
That dropped them into the Europa League, which was probably a blessing in disguise. They began at home to Roma, which they went into as slight favourites and proved why as LaRoche, Amundsen and striker Jan Rosenberger inspired a dominant 3-1 victory. A trickier game ended in a 2-0 defeat at Brighton but Baník recovered to defeat SK Rapid 3-1. Then a superb performance at home to Celta (who, for context, only have 13 players at the club) saw Rosenberger’s 23-minute hat trick and Hruska’s assist hat trick inspire a 6-0 demolition. Baník built on that with Hruska and Van der Heyden goals earning a 2-1 win at Lyon before a rotated side beat Lokomotiva 3-1 with goals by Zivaljic, LaRoche and Oussou. In the new year, they earned back-to-back wild 3-3s at Linfield and Lille to qualify in 6th place.
They got a favourable last 16 round against U Cluj. Van der Heyden and LaRoche earned a 2-0 win away before Rosenberger and Oussou did the same at home. An even more comfortable success followed in the quarters as LaRoche, Van der Heyden and Bäckström earned a 3-0 win at home to PAOK before a rotated team won a wild game 4-3 in Greece led by homegrown winger Filip Müller’s hat trick.
That teed up an all-Czechia semi final against Mahtal’s former club Slavia, while Benfica took on Polish side Stal Mielec in the other semi. The home leg was up first and Baník messed a mass of chances before Amundsen created one that Van der Heyden couldn’t possibly miss then scored himself from the second phase of a corner. But Slavia annoyingly got a late consolation. Baník started the away leg well and took the lead as Ríos burst out of midfield and chipped home Amundsen’s throughball and doubled his tally with a powerful effort just before half time. Amundsen was the creator again as his chipped cross was turned home by Van der Heyden, who also doubled his tally from Hrdy’s cross. And a 4-0 win eased Baník into the Final.
Chasing Consecutive Czech Titles
Baník resumed their quest to defend their title by dominating Chrudim 4-1 only to lose for the first time 1-0 at 3rd-place Mlada Boleslav. They were equally wasteful at home to Sparta, but LaRoche’s penalty was enough for a 1-0 victory that kept them 10 points clear of Mladá and 15 clear of Sparta. Another big game saw them welcome Slavia and start brightly as Van der Heyden headed home Amundsen’s cross before Barbat scored a bizarre goal completely unmarked six yards out from a corner. Slavia got one back but the exciting Amundsen and Bedini wrapped up a dominant 4-2 win.
That was backed up by Van der Heyden scoring a hat trick and Amundsen getting the other two in a 5-1 win at Zizkov, which moved them 13 points clear. They finished the season with a run of five games in nine days but a fully rotated team won 3-2 at Slovan Liberec led by winger Radek Novotny’s brace and beat Bohemians 5-0 with Müller and debutant midfielder Ondrej Chleboan both scoring two. That took Baník into the five-game Championship Group with a 13-point lead.
A rotated team lost 3-2 at home to Mladá but the title was secured a week later as Mladá lost 3-1 at home to Sparta. Baník went on to win the title by 16 points from Mladá, finishing on 92 points after 30 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, scoring a new league record 102 goals and conceding 33. Van der Heyden was the top scorer with 21 in 25 and topped the average rating with 7.70 followed by six more of his teammates in the top eight, LaRoche got the second most assists with 11 and Ríos led the way with an impressive five direct free kick goals.
Two Cup Finals To Seal Greatness
Baník’s players could write their names into history with a quadruple as they faced two cup finals. First up, was the Czech FA Cup Final against Slavia, which they’d reached with rotated sides and only 3,479 people bothered to turn up to! Slavia struck first but Baník dominated and drew level with Van der Heyden’s powerful low shot. The striker swiftly turned the game around as he seized on a dreadful backpass to easily finish, only for Slavia to make it 2-2 with their second shot on target just before the break. They swiftly made it three goals from three shots on target but Baník again responded immediately through LaRoche. They were soon ahead again as Hruska’s pass was brilliantly slammed home for Van der Heyden’s hat trick, but Slavia made it 4-4 as Baník failed to mark two players from a free kick. And that’s how a mad game finished to go to extra time. Baník struck first as two substitutes combined with Bedini crossing for Oussou to tap home. That, surprisingly, was the end of the action, so Baník secured a crazy 5-4 victory. Baník Ostrava won their 3rd FA Cup and first since 2029!
A few weeks later, two one-time winners went head-to-head as Baník faced Benfica in the Europa League Final at the City of Manchester Stadium. Mahtal had no injury concerns so lined up:
Nahshony; Hrdy, Hradisky, Barbat, L Novotny; Ríos, Bäckström; Amundsen, Hruska; LaRoche, Van der Heyden
Subs: Rosenberger, Herault, Druic, Oussou, Müller, Bedini, Mial, R Novotny, Gross, Masulovic, Zivaljic, Svoboda
Baník went close early on as Bäckström headed just over and took the lead as Hruska’s deep corner was powerfully headed home by Barbat. they dominated the first half hour but conceded Benfica’s first shot on target and again 8 minutes later. Mahtal laid into them at half time and the same corner routine worked as Van der Heyden headed home the equaliser 3 minutes after the break. And despite having 19 shots to 10 it finished 2-2 to go to extra time. But the referee decided the game by showing Hrdy a nonsense red card then awarding a dubious penalty to hand Benfica an undeserved 3-2 win.
Celebrating Great Success At Baník
Mahtal almost succeeded in his mission to take on Europe’s elite but Baník have certainly established dominance over the rest of Czechia. Van der Heyden proved to be the monster that Mahtal thought he would be, scoring a new club record 35 goals in 42 games followed by LaRoche (23), Amundsen (15), Bäckström (14), Rosenberger (13), Müller (12) and Oussou (11). Homegrown Hruska also broke the club record for assists with 22 followed by LaRoche (14), Amundsen and R Novotny (10) and Bäckström, Hrdy, Müller and Bedini (8).
The potential at Baník was confirmed by Bäckström winning NxGn 2064 with Amundsen in 3rd, Müller was 20th and striker Kaspars Sprole, currently on loan in Norway, was 23rd. And it could be boosted by an exciting youth intake led by 5-star potential midfielders Martinus Parmentier and Premysl Polásek.
Mahtal was loving life at Baník and was happy to sign on the dotted line when the board offrd him another one-year contract. This time, his sole mission was to try and take his club further in the Champions League.
Could he achieve that and dominate domestically again? Join us tomorrow to find out!
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment