“We can now offer our youth spaces that are comparable to similar facilities in the academies of major European clubs. For young people, these conditions should be a huge motivation,” said FC Viktoria Plzeň board member Martin Dellenbach. Together with Raphael Landthaler, he is behind the Austrian-Swiss company FCVP GmbH, which acquired a majority stake in Viktoria Plzeň at the end of June. According to Dellenbach, the new facility represents a milestone in the club’s history. “It will help retain talented players who might have left. The club’s infrastructure is at a high level and it must help us produce talent at international level,” he said. He appreciated the strong support of the city.
“All our children now have a place in their dressing room, their own locker and a hook to put their things. This is absolutely essential for the connection with the club. At the same time, it is binding for us to nurture the talents at the highest possible level, so that we in the future, they also helped in the A-team,” said the club’s sales and marketing manager Jaromír Hamouz. The children are primarily from Pilsen and the Pilsen region, but FC Viktoria’s influence extends to the surrounding regions as well.
Editing of the match of the 3rd preliminary round of the Conference League Pilsen – GziraVideo: O2 TV Sport
“The story of young Jan Paluska, Pavel Šulec or Robin Hranáč shows that investing in youth makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate how Viktorka works with young people. I believe that many more talented players will grow thanks to the new premises in Pilsen,” he said Zarzycky. According to him, FC Viktoria is a huge brand that makes the city a great name in Europe. “It is our duty to take care of such a brand,” he said.
The mayor added that in the fall, the city will start with the renovation of the locker rooms in the training area in Luční street for approximately 50 million crowns, and then in 2024 with the restoration of some of the playing surfaces there, the first to come will be artificial grass for 20 to 30 million crowns. “So far, the National Sports Agency has not performed well in this region and unfortunately we have to do it from our own resources,” he said.
FC Viktoria currently has up to 500 young players. “The youth now have a unified background and we want all teams to meet here,” said the club’s communications director Václav Hanzlík. The new facility serves approximately 400 players and coaches. “There are 12 categories of locker rooms here. Up until now, 14 categories alternated with six sliding locker rooms in Luční Street. After each training session, things had to be cleared. Now there are only two categories of the smallest equipment left,” said technical director Tomáš Samec. According to him, only two clubs in the Czech Republic have a similar background.
About a hundred football players will continue to train at the 33rd elementary school, where the city modernized their facilities a year and a half ago.