ZBlogW

“Are you sitting down?” laughs Martin Skrtel.

It’s been nearly a year since the former Liverpool defender announced his retirement from professional football due to a persistent back problem.

However, the 38-year-old hasn’t hung up his boots completely, and the conversation has turned to his unlikely role with FK Hajskala Raztocno, an amateur outfit in Slovakia’s eighth tier.

Advertisement

“I actually play as the No 10,” Skrtel tells The Athletic.

“When I went along for the first game, I said I’d go in my normal position at centre-back but after 10 minutes, I said to the coach, ‘Listen, how about I play as the No 6?’. After another 10 minutes, I said, ‘How about I play further up?’.

“I played a few games as a striker and got a few goals. Now I’ve dropped a bit little deeper. I basically get to run where I want. A free role —  a bit like Lionel Messi!”

A video clip from Raztocno’s recent clash with FK Bojnice shows Skrtel stepping up to curl a 20-yard free kick over the wall and into the top corner. Messi-esque, indeed.

“I bet you couldn’t believe it was me, am I right?” he chuckles. “But it was me, I promise you.

“If I sent you the video of the one I took before that one, I tried to smash it and it went about 20 metres over the goal. Thankfully, the next one was better.”

For Skrtel, playing for Raztocno is about keeping a promise he made when he was in the Premier League with Liverpool.

“I told my friends, ‘One day when I’m retired, I’ll come back home and play with you guys’,” he says.

“It’s the team in the village where I was born. My parents still live there and I have many friends there. I do it for them. When I first said I was going to play, everyone was thinking it would just be for one game. We had more than 3,000 people there. Now, it’s usually about 500 to 600.

“I can’t train, because of my back. I just go along each Sunday and play the game. For two or three days after, I can’t do any kind of outdoor activity because I’m so fucked.

“I’ve got nine or 10 goals this season. We’re second in the table, but I can’t say we want promotion. We’ve got quite an old team. Our goalkeeper, I think, is 56, and we have a few other players in their mid-40s. The most important thing is to have fun. We don’t push it.

Advertisement

“It’s a different kind of experience for me. I want to enjoy still being able to play a bit for as long as possible. It’s not easy to just say, ‘Right, I’m finished. I won’t kick a ball anymore’. As long as I enjoy it, I’ll keep going.”

Skrtel has just returned to his house in Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, after collecting son Matteo, 11, from school.

The former defender is relishing being able to spend more time with his family after a 20-year professional career which saw him win league titles in Russia and Turkey, either side of an eight-and-a-half-year spell at Anfield. He retired in May 2022 after one season with Spartak Trnava, also in his homeland.

“In the end, the decision to finish was easy for me. I didn’t have a choice, because of my back,” says Skrtel.

“I had a problem with the discs between the bones. Three of them came out. It was touching my nerve, so whenever I was running or jumping, sometimes after 10 or 15 minutes playing football, I couldn’t feel my legs. I had to stop.”

How has he filled the void?

“Well, the first few months after I retired, I just tried to get my back fixed,” Skrtel says. “I was having treatment, some physiotherapy, and doing some gym work. I started to feel better, so I thought I needed to do something else.

“As well as playing Sunday League football, I play a bit of ice hockey. My son is enjoying go-karting and he has races twice a week, so that fills a lot of my time. I’m also watching a lot of football. I try to go to as many games in Slovakia as I can.

“But I do really miss playing. It’s the dressing room I miss the most. All your life, you have that daily routine. You spend all that time with your team-mates and your coaches. Meeting up every morning, sharing the jokes, training together, the travelling to the games and the atmosphere in the dressing room. That’s what I really miss.

Advertisement

“I’m thinking about what to do next in my life.”

Skrtel, who won 104 caps, had previously dismissed the idea of ever becoming a manager. However, over the past 12 months, he has reassessed coaching as a next step and is currently in the process of studying for his UEFA A Licence.

“When I retired, I said, ‘No chance’. All those years of my career spent being away from home and away from my family — I didn’t like the idea of that continuing.

“But now, my opinion has changed a bit. I miss working with the guys every day. I’ve started doing my coaching licences, so we’ll see what the future brings. If something comes up, then I’ll be ready for it.”

On Saturday, Skrtel will be surrounded by familiar faces once again. He’s returning to Merseyside to play for Liverpool Legends against Celtic Legends at Anfield. The match will raise funds for the community work of the LFC Foundation. Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger and Dirk Kuyt will be among his team-mates again.

“I can’t wait,” he says. “It will be my second time back at Anfield since I left as a player.

“Before the first time (against Manchester United Legends last year), I didn’t know what to expect. I was a little bit nervous. I didn’t know what the level of the game would be like.

“I’m looking forward to playing at Anfield and seeing all the guys again. One side of the coin is that we can play the game. The other side is raising a lot of money to help the foundation with the fantastic things they do helping people in the local area. It’s a small thing that we can do as ex-players to give back.

“Liverpool will always be our second home. My son was born there. We have so many good memories from our time there. Liverpool will always be in our hearts. Unfortunately, during my days in Turkey (with Istanbul Basaksehir), I never got the chance to go back. Now I have more time, I’ll try to come back to Liverpool as much as possible.”

Advertisement

Skrtel made 320 appearances for Liverpool after being signed by Rafael Benitez from Zenit Saint Petersburg for £6.5million in January 2008.

His spell proved to be something of a rollercoaster ride — from a title challenge in 2008-09 to Benitez’s reign unravelling as the damaging ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett took a toll.

Skrtel was there during Roy Hodgson’s short, disastrous tenure and then a key part of a resurgence led initially by Kenny Dalglish.

He scored in the League Cup final win over Cardiff City at Wembley in 2012 but that proved to be his only major honour with the club. There was the heartache of missing out on the title again after a thrilling challenge spearheaded by Brendan Rodgers in 2013-14, when Skrtel chipped in with seven league goals.

He started the first game of Jurgen Klopp’s reign in October 2015 but his game time began to dwindle and he moved to Fenerbahce in Istanbul for £5million the following summer.

“I’ll always be proud of what I did at Liverpool and the fact I stayed for such a long time,” Skrtel says. “I came from a small country. I was the player nobody knew when I arrived at Liverpool. Of course, I can’t say I only had good games but I always tried to do my best for the club, and for the fans.

“To win the League Cup was one of the highlights of my career. To score at Wembley that day made it extra special. The season when we nearly won the league under Brendan… it still hurts. I still sometimes think about what we could have done differently, what could we have changed to win it? But unfortunately, we can’t change it. Now it’s history.

“I tried to take something from each of the managers I had there. Rafa was the one who believed in me and gave me the chance to see what it was like to be at a big club, and to be playing in the best league in the world.

Advertisement

“After that, it was Hodgson and not as good a period. Then Kenny before Brendan, and then Jurgen. All of them top-quality managers.”

Who was the toughest striker he faced?

“There were many — Wayne Rooney, Emmanuel Adebayor in his best days, Diego Costa, Ronaldo, Karim Benzema. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Didier Drogba. I had many battles with Drogba.”

Skrtel watched from afar with delight as Klopp has led Liverpool to the biggest prizes but this season, their fortunes have nosedived. Out of all the cups, they find themselves sixth in the Premier League and facing an uphill task to secure Champions League qualification via a top four finish over the run-in.

“In football you never only get good days, you have to take the bad days too,” he says.

“When the days are bad, you have to fight with everything you have to get the good days back again. This season is not as everyone wanted it to be. But there are three big games after the international break: Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal. That’s going to be make or break in terms of qualifying for the Champions League. I still believe we can do it.

“The game against Manchester United at home was one of the best games I’ve ever seen but then it was Bournemouth and Real Madrid — not as good. If we can perform like we did against United, we can finish in the top four.

“Jurgen is definitely the right man in the right place. Nobody should be even thinking about anyone else coming to the club. He’s a top manager and the best man for the job.”

Skrtel is a big admirer of current Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konate, who has proved a big hit since his £36million move from RB Leipzig in 2021. His absence has been keenly felt at times this season, with injuries limiting him to just 13 starts in all competitions.

“When I was playing in Turkey a few years ago, we played against Leipzig and at the time, everyone was talking about this guy (Dayot) Upamecano. I told my friend, ‘The other centre-back Leipzig have got is even better’. I was so happy when Liverpool signed him. Konate is such a good player. He’s strong physically and he seems strong mentally too, and he’s good with the ball. He’s still young and will be very important for the club’s future.”

Advertisement

Liverpool could be in the market for another centre-back this summer. Who would fit the bill?

“Don’t forget, Virgil van Dijk is still one of the best defenders in the world,” says Skrtel. “Then there’s Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, as well as Konate, so Liverpool have good players in that position. but if you asked me to pick one other excellent centre-back, it would be Milan Skriniar, the Slovakian. Unfortunately, he’s not available as he’s already agreed to move from Inter to PSG but he would be great for Liverpool if he was available.”

Our time is up. One final thought, how are Hajskala Raztocno going to cope in his absence this weekend, given that Skrtel will be back at Anfield?

“Now you aren’t going to believe me,” he laughs. “But I’m playing Saturday in Liverpool, and then (for Raztocno) on Sunday, I’ll be back in time for our game. A difficult weekend for me!

“Maybe I’ll start on the bench on Sunday and if the team needs me, then I will try to help — got to keep playing while I can and I’ll always keep trying my best.”

(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k2xqbm1mZ3xzfJFsZmlrX2eAcLnAq6uipl2ouLPAxKVkpaGmmr%2Bxu86lZKKmpJq%2Ft7XEsGY%3D