Tomas Cvancara’s agent has fought the Celtic striker’s corner over Czechia manager Miroslav Koubek’s recent comments.
In a bizarre move, Koubek criticised Cvancara after leaving him out of his latest national squad, claiming that the striker didn’t see the national team as a priority.
He derived this from the 25-year-old’s comments on the Celtic FC Podcast earlier this year, when asked about his ambition to play in this summer’s World Cup.
It’s quite a remarkable situation, all spawned by harmless chat in an in-house club interview.
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Tomas Cvancara’s agent responds to Czechia manager’s comments
David Nehoda, agent of the striker, said on his X account: “The justification for the absence of Tomas Cvancara from the nomination for [Czechia] is entirely misleading and completely taken out of the context of the entire interview for Celtic TV from 5 weeks ago.
“No one from the national team management is or has been in contact with Tomas.
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“Drawing information about the player and his current situation in the club solely from the media strikes me as very strange.
“Was Tomas basically telling the fans that after 3 games for Celtic, the national team is his priority?? WTF.”
It’s hard not to agree with Cvancara’s camp. Koubek’s comments on Cvancara came across as misinformed and unnecessarily garrulous.
His exact word when asked about the Celtic man were: “We considered what awaits us and what mentality is suitable for this game.
“Cvancara expressed himself that the national team is not a priority for him.
“As a coach, I say that it is not a priority for me to take a player for whom the national team is not a priority.”
He was responding to Cvancara saying on the podcast, when asked about making the World Cup squad: “It would be an honour, but to be honest, it’s not my goal for the future.
“I would say I want to focus more on the club.”
It surely doesn’t take a genius to know that the striker is simply referring to the fact that this out of his control and therefore not worth prioritising.
For the national boss to dig him out for such clearly well-intentioned comments without reaching out privately is poor.
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Other Celts involved in March internationals
Cvancara has been denied the opportunity to play against Liam Scales’ Ireland in the semi-final of the play-offs for this summer’s tournament in North America.
The winner of that will then play North Macedonia or a Kasper Schmeichel-less Denmark in the final, for a place in a group with Mexico, South Africa and South Korea at the competition.
Also involved in the play-offs are Benjamin Nygren’s Sweden, who play Ukraine for a final against Poland or Albania.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha won’t be part of DR Congo’s intercontinental play-off against either Jamaica or New Caledonia, having been dropped from the squad for reasons presumably linked to his lack of game time.
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