EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW..ROK TANESKI (in English and Italian)

Here at Hellas Verona English, we are delighted to announce an exclusive interview with Rok Taneski,  recently signed to the Primavera team from Slovenian club NK Domzale.

Rok is an exciting prospect and was linked in the past with Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Tottenham. Rok (1996) has already played with the youth teams of Slovenia and made his first appearance for Hellas against the first team in a friendly, against such pl


ayers as Luca Toni and Bosko Jankovic.

The interview has been translated into Italian also so that all fans of Hellas Verona can read what Rok had to say. The Italian version is underneath the English version. We offer our sincerest thanks to Rok for agreeing to the interview. You can follow him on twitter at @taneskiR23

Interview by Charles Ducksbury (@cducksbury) and translated into Italian by Alvise Franz (@alvisefranz)

ROK, TELL US ABOUT YOUR EARLY DAYS PLAYING FOOTBALL..WHO WERE YOUR IDOLS?
I started playing football with 5 years in a club named NK Britof, in small village near my hometown Kranj in Slovenia. My father knew the coach there because they used to play together. It was a really small club and people there were pretty nice. I met few friends there and later on my father was the coach of the team and we used to play together for 5 years and after that we were all transfered to bigger local club NK Triglav. Club in Britof was not very serious but I have a lot of good memories there. My childhood idol was Ronaldinho, I was totally in love with him and since he played in Barcelona I am a big fan of Catalan club. I also like Zlatan Ibrahimović very much, because of his attitude and self-confidence. And I like Sergio Aguero's style of playing.

YOU PLAYED FOR DOMZALE..WAS IT TOUGH TO LEAVE THEM?
Yeah, I could say it was quite hard because I had some really good friends there. But I think it was time to move on and take the chance which was given to me - to play for Hellas Verona.

HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR OF INTEREST FROM HELLAS VERONA, AND WHAT DID YOU KNOW OF THE CLUB?
I first heard about the club interest when my agent called me at the end of previous season. To be honest, I didn't know much about the club, but I knew that they have a lot of loyal fans, who support the club in good and bad times. It's really a honour to be a part of so big club such as Hellas Verona.

NOW YOU'VE ARRIVED..HOW HAVE YOU SETTLED? HOW DO THE CLUB HELP YOU WITH KEY THINGS, ACCOMODATION, LANGUAGE?
I have settled very good here. The city of Verona is very beautiful and people here are very nice. Life here is really good. I have to say that club helps me a lot with key things- accomodation is OK, I live with the other boys from Primavera here in a big house in city center. And three times a week I have lessons of Italian language, so I am learning very fast. All the best about the club, the organisation is on the top level.

YOU MADE YOUR DEBUT AGAINST THE FIRST 11 IN A FRIENDLY, AND PLAYERS SUCH AS JANKOVIC AND TONI..HOW WAS THIS EXPERIENCE?
If I have to describe this experience it would be - amazing. These are really big names of European football and it's a honour to play against them.I am really happy for making this debut and I'm looking forward to play in Campionato Primavera.

HOW ARE YOUR TEAM-MATES? ANY ONE PLAYER IMPRESSED YOU THE MOST?
My team-mates are very nice, they have accepted me immediately. I feel really good in the team. I think that Fabio Alba is an excellent player, he impressed me the most and I have to give my compliments also to Mohamed Fares.

FINALLY, WHAT ARE YOUR AIMS FOR NOW, AND IN THE FUTURE?
My primary goal for now is to gain Mister's Pavanel trust and to play as much as possible. We are currently first in the table and I want to give my 100% to my team in every match to help them stay on top. In the future, it would be very nice to play in Serie A or any other league of 'European top 5' one day, it would be a dream cometrue. I want to enjoy in the beautiful game of football as long as possible.

ITALIAN

Ci racconti dei tuoi inizi nel mondo del calcio.. Chi erano i tuoi idoli?

Ho iniziato giocando 5 anni in un piccolo club che si chiamava NK Britof, in un paesino vicino alla mia città, Kranj, in Slovenia. Mio padre conosceva l’allenatore della squadra perchè erano stati compagni di squadra. La squadra era molto piccola e la gente era disponibile e simpatica. Mi sono fatto buoni amici in quell’esperienza e successivamente mio padre è diventato allenatore quindi abbiamo avuto l’occasione di stare nella stessa squadra per 5 anni. Dopo quel periodo ci hanno trasferiti tutti in una squadra locale più importante che si chiamava NK Trigla, sempre a Britof. Il mio idolo da piccolo era Ronaldinho per il quale provavo una vera adorazione che mi ha portato a diventare tifoso del Barcellona; mi piace Ibrahimović per il suo modo di fare e per la sicurezza di se stesso. E Sergio Aguero per lo stile di gioco.

Hai giocato nel Domzale.. è stato difficile lasciare la squadra?

Sì assolutamente, mi ero fatto dei grandi amici al Domzale. Ma ho pensato fosse arrivato il momento di guardare avanti e cogliere al volo l’opportunità di giocare nell’Hellas Verona.

Come sei venuto a conoscenza la prima volta dell’Hellas e cosa sapevi della squadra?

Ne ho sentito parlare la prima volta alla fine della scorsa stagione. Per essere onesti non conoscevo bene la squadra ma avevo sentito parlare della tifoseria: appassionata e sempre  al seguito dei giocatori sia nelle vittorie che nelle sconfitte. É un onore per me essere parte di una Società importante come l’Hellas.

Ora sei qui: come ti sei sistemato? Come ti aiuta la società con l’alloggio e l’italiano per esempio?

Mi sono sistemato molto bene. La città è splendida, le persone sono gentili e la vita di ogni giorno è molto piacevole. La società mi ha dato una mano con le cose importanti: vivo con gli altri giocatori della Primavera in una casa in centro a Verona e tre volte a settimana ho lezione di italiano, quindi sto imparando velocemente. L’organizzazione della società è veramente di altissimo livello.

Hai fatto il tuo debutto contro la prima squadra in amichevole, giocatori come Jankovic e Toni... Come stata l’esperienza?

É stata veramente incredibile. Questi sono grandi nomi del calcio Europeo ed è stato un onore giocare contro di loro. Sono molto felice di aver iniziato contro di loro e non vedo l’ora di giocare nel Campionato Primavera.

Come sono i tuoi compagni di squadra? Qualcuno ti ha impressionato in maniera particolare?

I compagni di squadra sono stati molto gentili e mi hanno accettato dal primo momento. Mi trovo molto bene con loro. Credo che Fabio Alba sia un grande giocatore, è quello che mi ha impressionato di più insieme a Mohamed Fares.

Infine, quali sono i tuoi obiettivi oggi e nel futuro?

Il mio obiettivo primario ora è guadagnarmi la fiducia del mister Pavanel in modo da giocare il più possibile. Adesso siamo primi e voglio dare il mio contributo al 100% per aiutare la squadra a rimanere in cima alla classifica. Nel futuro sarebbe fantastico giocare in Serie A o in una delle prime divisioni Europee, realizzerei la mia prima ambizione, ma soprattutto voglio continuare a divertirmi a giocare a calcio per il maggior tempo possibile.

Bologna 1-4 Hellas Verona..reaction

Hellas win again and deservedly so.

THE GAME

Considering the first few fixtures, this was the first test against a side expected to finish in the middle of the table, despite Bologna finding themselves in the relegation places. Verona fans travelled in large numbers and arrived in the town early due to the lack of trains running between the two towns today.

Upon arriving in Bologna, Hellas fans were marched to the stadium. but others walked away from the main group. It was one of these groups that was attacked by Bologna fans armed with knives and bottles, leaving two fans hospitalised after being stabbed. This caused tension and clashes between the two sets of fans. Because of this, the main road towards the stadium was closed, meaning the team coach had to be diverted to some B roads, meaning kick-off was delayed by 20 minutes due to the team bus not arriving in time.

The game itself was perhaps the perfect away performance and showed Mandorlini for what he is, a brave coach and one who can work out teams weaknesses and expose them. Playing a 4-3-3 with Iturbe and Gomez each side of Toni, the pace of Hellas' attacks caught Bologna napping and the goals by Cacciatore and Iturbe were of no surprise. Despite Bologna then attacking after the break and scoring via a Diamanti penalty, Verona soon dominated again and scored via Toni and right at the end Jorginho. Verona had many more clear chances, the worst culprits being Jorginho and Toni. The player of the match was Iturbe, showing creativity, pace and scored a wonderful goal from 25 yards for 2-0. Upon being substituted, he even was applauded off by some Bologna fans who appreciated his excellent performance.  The win lifts us to 5th, an incredible feat. Although the season is young, it puts more points between us and the relegation spots, with important games against Parma and Inter coming up.

QUOTES

MANDORLINI- "We are back in Serie A after a very long time, we wanted to feed that enthusiasm and we are succeeding and we hope this can continue. We are very, very happy with the league position." Speaking about Iturbe "He's a boy of great prospect and Verona is the perfect stage for him to show his talents."

ITURBE- "We wanted to win and we achieved our goal. It was harder than it seemed because Bologna are a team fighting at the bottom. We live in a magical moment, but lets take things game by game."

TONI- "We're in a great period but lets not forget the target, which remains salvation. Iturbe? Playing with him is very good, he can have an important future."

PIOLI (COACH BOLOGNA)- "It was the worst performance of my time here at Bologna. I take full responsibility but I remain convinced we will succeed. Credit to Verona, they attacked well and closed down the spaces."

SIDENOTES
After missing a few games with injury, Mimmo Maietta returned to the team for todays game, but exited with another injury, straining his right calf muscle. The next few days will evaluate his recovery time.