"Dragged me across the world and then stuck a knife in my back," Slovak national team veteran on the team's head coach

News from the camp of Ukraine's Euro 2024 group rival. Slovakia's veteran 33-year-old striker Robert Mak has harshly criticised the national team's head coach Francesco Calzona.

The forward's dissatisfaction stems from the fact that having travelled from very far away Australia (Mac now plays for Sydney FC) for the national team's March matches against Austria (0:2) and Norway (1:1), he received only 7 minutes of game time in the first of those matches and sat out the entire meeting with the Norwegians.

"If the coach didn't want to use me in those matches, he didn't need to call me up. If I heard that the coach didn't like my current game, I would have accepted it calmly. Despite the fact that now I am doing well and scoring goals for the club. The coach has every right to choose the players. I wouldn't even need an explanation in such a situation.

But the fact that he just dragged me through the world not only made me very angry, but also caused me a lot of regret by treating me like that. It was a stab in my back, that's how I feel about it. This situation has really hurt me.

I am also very angry that the manager of the national team and my former teammate Marek Gamšík (now he is the head of the Slovakian national team - ed.), who knows very well what is happening in the national team and knows very well my history and desire to defend the colours of the national team, did not react in any way to the way I was treated.

I have no plans to finish my career in the national team. But there were events that I just had to react to. I can't call the coach today and tell him that he doesn't show me enough respect and treats me like I'm not doing my best for Slovakia. It's up to him how he will take all these words of mine. "If by saying all this I closed the door to Euro 2024 for myself, it will be a pity, but I had to get it out," Mack said in a comment to Slovak newspaper Sport.

Translation and stylistic adaptation - Dynamo.kiev.ua, when using the material hyperlink is mandatory!