Karol Dobiaš

"It goes without saying that I was brought up in humble conditions. That is logical because people were not paid millions like they are today. The salaries were average. My upbringing consisted of greeting people on the street and being fairly kind-hearted - which I think I am. In football, I learned to be tidy. I will not compare it with this era when players easily throw one, two, three jerseys into the crowd. Back then, we didn't have so many of them. Today, the players want new boots every months. We used to have Puma boots in the Trnava era, and the national team wore Adidas. I cherished mine. When it was raining, I washed them and filled them with newspaper. They laster for two years but today is a different era. Our era was humble. We played for a thousand crowns. We were modest. Modesty was essential."

"Then, after a couple years - I was no longer eighteen but rather twenty-five - we'd always go to a bar. We had some drinks and then at 3 or 4 a.m. returned back home. At 9 or 10, there was a training. We were young, our combustion worked well, and so we didn't mind. Two pairs of trousers, a beer to get ourselves back in shape and we carried on."