Karol Dobiaš

"Of course, every title was good for one simple reason - it had a financial effect. Back then, they paid us five thousand crowns for the title. At the time, that was big money. It meant that when I won four home matches, I got four thousand crowns. One thousand for each. I even received eight hundred crowns to cover my food expenses, for training. This was provided by the football club. Altogether, my monthly allowance was eight and a half thousand crowns. At that time, that was huge money because a factory director got three thousand or three thousand five hundred crowns. Back in the Trnava era, this is the money I've gotten plus some five thousand for the title. Today, people get two, three, four million for a title. We've had five thousand."

"It goes without saying that I was brought up in humble conditions. That is logical because people were not paid millions like they are today. The salaries were average. My upbringing consisted of greeting people on the street and being fairly kind-hearted - which I think I am. In football, I learned to be tidy. I will not compare it with this era when players easily throw one, two, three jerseys into the crowd. Back then, we didn't have so many of them. Today, the players want new boots every months. We used to have Puma boots in the Trnava era, and the national team wore Adidas. I cherished mine. When it was raining, I washed them and filled them with newspaper. They laster for two years but today is a different era. Our era was humble. We played for a thousand crowns. We were modest. Modesty was essential."