The sawmillers motivate Hujer in the audience, he would not prevent his son from going on a foreign adventure

According to the native of Chlumec nad Cidlinou, the life of an athlete is full of questions. “Every week I’m concerned about Hradec and that we get into calm league waters. But I’m a maximalist and I’d like to go even higher.”

Pilař’s entire neighborhood lives on football. “Sometimes even 35 people from my family come to the match, all of them Hujers. I feel a lot of support from them, which is why I want to play football as long as possible,” he explained.

Both sons are already rolling on the field and dad, as a league champion, tries to help them as much as possible in and outside of training.

“The nine-year-old also plays football, so at home they are already dealing with how he should train, how he should eat and the like. I have already brought the three-year-old to football, so I try to be with them at their training,” he explained.

But at Pilař, the wife is more in charge of coaching. “She’s even thinking about getting her coaching license so she can coach kids.”

While the then thirteen-year-old Pilař from the small East Bohemian club SK Prévýšov rejected the offer of the youth academy Paris St. Germain, in the same situation, he would send his son to study abroad.

“Today is a different time. Back then, we didn’t even know what abroad was. We were only out there for a few tournaments, but today the gate to Europe is open. If we had seen that he had talent, we would have sacrificed everything for such a chance. And I would easily go there with he drove as a boy,” reflects the player of “Votroks” from Hradec Králové.

After a loan spell in Pilsen in the summer of 2012, he headed to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg. He was chosen by the very strict coach Felix Magath, who was known for literally horse training doses.

But they left health consequences for the player known by the nickname “Pilka”. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament, which was repaired by plastic surgery. He has been struggling with the knee ever since.

“Maybe it made me a stronger person and I had more willpower. But as a result, there were too many injuries and I was without football for a year, a year and a half. You can be as strong as you want, but I lost my best form because of that. ,” the player recalled.

One of the highlights of Pilař’s career was at Euro 2012, where he and Petr Jiráček were the only successful scorers in the Czech Republic jersey.

“I was then a young boy who constantly looked up to my elders and learned from them. The preparatory matches before the Euros helped me tremendously. I succeeded in the play-off match, but I was still learning. When I saw a player like Rosicky, I immediately he knew where I wanted to go. I liked the way he thinks about football,” recalled the 22-time Czech international.

Just like other wives, an exotic vacation will delight Pilař’s wife, who is most excited by a visit to the tabernacle of the Spanish club Real Madrid. The family could not miss a tour of the rebuilt Santiago Bernabéu.

“We all support Real Madrid at home. When ‘White Ballet’ plays, the whole family gathers around the TV and watches. The young man already wants to go to Real Madrid again, it will be his birthday, so he wants to go there again. He is already collecting money from his grandmothers to he could buy a jersey there,” Pilař added with a laugh.