Will Slavia send Kinski and Icha to Liberec at a time when the association reopened the Slavia-Nezmar case?

The man of the match in Pardubice was 22-year-old Marek Icha. He scored the home team’s first goal in the 47th minute, when he found his way around the goal perfectly and hit the rebounded ball into the visiting goal in a somewhat netball-like manner. Icha’s second great moment came when he replaced goalkeeper Kinski and prevented a certain goal.

Marek Icha made his debut in the league in the shirt of Slavia in August 2022 in a match with Zlín, when he was twenty years and four months old. The Veselí nad Lužnicí protege, who got to Eden via Táborsko, managed only three league matches in Eden. After a loan spell in the second division Vlašimi, he gathers experience in the league Pardubice. Last season he played 24 games, in the current one he already has 23. His performance has been increasing significantly lately. The regular Slavia player made considerable progress under the guidance of former national team stopper Radoslav Kováč.

He is not the first young player to improve under Kováč. Just remember Pilsen’s Robin Hranáč and Slavist Tomáš Vlček. Both went up significantly in performance in Pardubice last season and earned returns to their parent clubs. Both are already aspirants for the representative nomination for the EURO. Robin Hranáč practically does not “get off the field” in Victoria, he is closer to participation. Tomáš Vlček has it more difficult in Jindřich Trpišovský’s rotating lineup. Even so, he has already played twenty league matches in the season, he can be used as a stopper and a right back, in the last rounds he appears in the defense in the base together with Ogbu, Holeš and Bořil at the expense of the “hundred million” David Zima.

But back to Mark Ich, which is “growing” in Pardubice. His hosting at the club is until 30.6.2024. He is a player who has been talked about lately. It is not expected that he would stay at the Pardubice club on loan for the next season as well. All the more so since the head coach Radoslav Kováč will very likely leave Pardubice, whose new engagement in Slovan Liberec has been unofficially talked about as a done deal for a long time.

It is expected that Slovan Liberec with a new owner Ondřej Kania will be the “pike” of the next year’s league competition. For this, the staff needs to be rebuilt and significantly strengthened. The Liberec club is reportedly very interested in Marko Icha, who could move from Pardubice together with Radoslav Kováč. However, other clubs are also expected to be interested in Ich’s services. For example, Mladá Boleslav. In any case, Slavia’s position will be decisive, whether they will send Icha on another loan or even sell him, or if they will give him a chance to fight for a place in their team. Icha is universally usable as a stopper, right back or defensive midfielder. Slavia, as the current season shows, does not have these posts perfectly solved.

On the other hand, it would be a surprise, if Marek Icha really got a chance in Eden next season. Slavia will probably not have patience with the young Czech player. After all, in January of this year, this is how she sacrificed her promising offspring Červo and Valenta, who went to Viktoria Plzeň as a replacement for goalkeeper Staňko. Both soon became members of the starting line-up in Pilsen. Valenta was then unfortunately injured, but for Slavia, the unnecessary midfielder Lukáš Červ, who previously worked in Liberec, “rolls” beyond expectations for Viktorka Plzeň. He is slowly starting to claim even a national team jersey.

Therefore, it is rather possible to assume that Marko Icha will move to another address within the Czech league. Maybe for a loan, maybe for a permanent transfer with “insurance”, i.e. with a preferential buyback back to Slavia for a predetermined price. Whether it will be in Liberec, however, is a big question.

Today, Jan Nezmar is active again in professional football. He is the new general manager of the Liberec club and the “right-hand man” of the new owner of Slovan Liberec, Ondřej Kania, who makes no secret of the fact that he would not have done it without Nezmar. By joining the management of the Liberec club, Nezmar renewed his membership in the FAČR. Therefore, the Ethics Commission could reopen the case.

In this connection, Ondřej Kania recently stirred up events with a claim, that people from the association allegedly pushed for Jan Nezmar to quickly return to FAČR. In that case, disciplinary proceedings could be initiated against Slavia due to the possible influence of the highest competition in the championship season, when Nezmar worked in Eden as sports director. “There was a lot of pressure on us for Honza to join FAČR right away. If he had entered there until another week, the whole case would have been time-barred on Slavia’s side, and no one would have been able to sniff it out.” stated Kania.

Petr Šedivý, the press spokesman of the association, agrees https://twitter.com/sedivyp/status/1785334478342119618: “FAČR did not exert any pressure on anyone in this direction. Ondřej Kania did not specify his statement, however, he himself admits that Jan Nezmar wanted to open his case on the grounds of the Ethics Commission of the FAČR by joining the FAČR.

On the further course of this case and the development of relations Jan Nezmar / Ondřej Kania – Jaroslav Tvrdík, and thus Slovan Liberec – SK Slavia Praha, the fate of Marko Icha will probably also depend a little. And maybe not only him. In Pardubice, another regular player of the Prague club, the promising goalkeeper Antonín Kinski, is also doing great.

Antonín Kinsky is considered a great goalkeeping talent Czech football. It was somewhat assumed that, with a favorable development after the loan from Pardubice, he would take over the goalkeeper “scepter” from Aleš Mandous in Eden. But in January, Slavia surprisingly bought the experienced Jindřich Staňek, the current national team number one, from Pilsen. This clearly “slammed the door” for Antonín Kinski to return to Prague.

Jindřich Staněk can be number one in Slavia at least for the next five years. That is, if he does not shine on the EUR and does not receive an offer “that cannot be refused”. At the age of 21, Antonín Kinský needs to catch regularly. This can continue on loan in Pardubice, which officially ends on 30.6.2024, but it can also be completely different.

The transfer of Antonín Kinski to the new ambitious He would give Slovan Liberec logic. All the more so because the player’s father, a man of the same name, is a legend of the Liberec club, in which he played 115 league matches and was also the goalkeeper for the championship in the 2001/02 season.

Next weeks will answer the question, where both players will continue in the next league season. For a possible departure to Liberec with Radoslav Kováč, the development of events on the route Slavia – Liberec will be very important. It is possible that both players, or one of them, within the framework of good relations between the two clubs, and with regard to the mutual interest in the positive resolution of the case before the Ethics Commission of the association, will actually appear in the Liberec club in the new season. Let’s see, let’s be surprised.