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.

November 21st 2010...September 29th 2013

The start of an incredible journey.

Looking back it was the beginning of the modern Hellas Verona. Yet at the time not even the most optimistic Scaligeri supporter couldn't have predicted where we'd be less than three years later. November 21st was our game away to SPAL, the team of Ferrara. We were 17th out of 18 teams in Serie C1. We'd lost to rivals Salernitana 2-1 and coach Beppe Giannini had been sacked. The fans were angry, the team poor. Yet another season in the lower divisions seemed likely. Even a repeat of the relegation battle to avoid C2 of 2007-08 wasn't so unrealistic.

President Martinelli

President Martinelli needed a new coach. After his poor choices in Remondina (just saying his name sends shivers down my spine, a coach who played for the draw in EVERY.SINGLE.GAME and made his first substitution in the 87th minute) and Giannini, (who after a strong pre-season was clearly out of his depth even in the third division) the pressure was on to deliver with this decision. Luckily for him, Andrea Mandorlini was available after his sacking at CFR Cluj of Romania, despite leading them to the league title the season before. He was just what we needed. A coach who wouldn't take any bullshit and never ever allow anything less than full commitment. He was quickly signed up and got to work.

Mandorlini in his first press-conferance

There was a two week break after the pathetic defeat in Salerno, so tactics were quickly drawn up. Journalists and fans were impressed of Mandorlini's demeanour in training, constantly harassing his players to improve and stopping sessions to discuss tactical points. Martinelli spoke of a new 'professionalism' within the squad, whilst the players themselves spoke of the hard work (Andy Selva "I've never ran so much!")

As mentioned above, Mandorlini's first game in charge of Hellas saw us one place above bottom. The first game of the Mandorlini era was played in terrible conditions on a pitch with more mud than grass. Giuseppe Meloni gave SPAL the lead before Beppe Le Noci equalised with a low header before half-time. That's how it finished in a game where the ball spent much more time in the air than on the floor.

After promotion in Salerno

It's incredible to think that it took the Ravenna born coach six games to get his first win after drawing his first five (SPAL, Pavia, Sorrento, Lumezzane and Pergocrema.) Victory came at home to Paganese, the team who beat us on the first game of the season. 4-0 was unexpected but welcome and helped move us away from the relegation play-out places.

Mandorlini actually only lost three out of 22 league matches, not including the successful play-off campaign that eventually saw us promoted to Serie B after beating Salernitana in the play-off final.
We're in the spotlight at the minute and the world seems to be finding out exactly who we are. But those that have been there through the hard times will never forget those days in Serie C. As I write we currently sit in 7th place, level on points with fifth. I know it's early days but to look back where we were less than three years ago makes you proud to be a Verona fan and proud of Mandorlini after what he's achieved. After the players and Curva had finished applauding each other after the Livorno game there was a quiet for around five seconds, but then a song started..MANDORLINI ALE MANDORLINI ALE MANDORLINI ALE ALE ALE!!!!

Opinion..Charles' thoughts

Charles Ducksbury talks about the season as a whole thus far.

Cacciatore gives Verona the lead

The season was never going to be defined by the Juventus game, defeat was expected and anything gained from the match, even learning from mistakes made during the game, was a positive. To take the lead and to keep Juve to within one goal pleased both the fans and management, even if defeat is never easy to accept. All it took was a set-piece or lucky deflection and we could have left with a draw. But like all small margins in football, many of Juve's 35 efforts could have gone in and it may have finished 6-1. It's important to take what we've learned from the Juve game and move onto more important games like the next two, Torino and at home to Livorno.

Moras defends against Llorente

So what did we learn? For me the most important lesson is that we can defend relatively well against the best team in the league. Last season we dominated games and played at an incredible tempo at times, so to know that we can sit deep but press quickly in the right areas was nice to see. 35 shots do seem a lot, but many were from long range and either went wide or were comfortably saved by Rafael. Moras (much like Rafael when he went from Serie C to B) seems to be more suited to a higher division, playing a very composed game against two giants of world football in Tevez and Llorente. After initially being looked at as a substitute, Moras has become a key defender so far this season.

Six points from the first four games is very acceptable given the high standard of the opponents. Milan, Roma, Sassuolo and Juventus are all tough games at any point in the season for various reasons, never mind them being the first games of the season, four points would have been pleasing, so to win two games is very positive. In my mind the Milan game was a one-off game played with heart and adrenaline, the following three games gave me more of an indication of Verona's capabilities. In many ways, the Roma and Juventus games were similar, we lost concentration after the first goal and within ten minutes were we beaten. This is something Mandorlini will look to address, particularly against the stronger teams in the division.

Looking forward, the next games are Torino (A) Livorno (H) Bologna (A) Parma (H). After playing three sides predicted to finish top 5, now we'll play four teams who are predicted to finish mid-table and below. It's a great opportunity to see where Verona fit into this Serie A table, and although its a cliche, the season starts now for Verona.

Another game in Turin..Torino on Wednesday

The game against Torino on Wednesday night

Hellas made the wise decision to stay in Piedmont instead of travelling back to Verona, as they play in the same city for the second time in four days on Wednesday.

Verona will train at Novarello, an hour away from Turin, before heading home on Wednesday evening after the game with the Granata.

Juve 2-1 Verona..the reaction

Reaction from Verona's defeat in Turin

MANDORLINI- 'We have left the game feeling sorry. For ten minutes we gave up and were punished with two goals. After our goal we lost concentration, but for the goals I felt we were solid. But we remain positive, as we have lost to the strongest team in the division. Verona has never won here for a reason, this is a difficult place for any team. We arrived wanting a draw which would help towards survival, but overall my feeling is a positive one.'

MORAS- 'We tried putting into practice a whole week of training. We believed we could get a result but now we must forget this performance as we have a game on Wednesday which is win at all costs. Tevez? A winner, but what mattered was our attitude. We were aggressive and if we play like this we will be difficult for everyone. We'll take everything we have learned and move on to Torino.

CONTE (JUVENTUS)- 'Credit to Hellas, they had a plan and executed it well. we created a lot and could have won by more goals. It was difficult for Pirlo to be man-marked all game, I thought Jorginho would follow him into the toilet! It was a similar game to Copenhagen, with very little space on the pitch'

Pope Francis is a Hellas fan..evidence!

The archbishop of Rome receives a present from Verona..

The famous renault 4 (photo via hellaslive)

Don Renzo Zocca has been pastor of Verona for 25 years. He has seen it all. The Scudetto, European adventures, Bagnoli, Elkjaer..but also the yo-yo years of the 90's and the fall into Serie C..abd the rise back up again.

This week Don Zocca gave the Pope a present..a Renault 4. He even drove the car to Rome himself. However the car also has a surprise (well, two surprises..) on the back window are two Hellas Verona stickers..the mighty Hellas forever now linked with higher powers.

Pre-match news..Hellas-Sassuolo

News ahead of the third game of the season

INJURIES- Hellas held a closed training session on Thursday, with two major injury doubts. Defender Albertazzi will 99% miss the game, whilst forward Luca Toni is a major doubt after picking up a muscle strain early in the week.

OPPONENTS- Sassuolo will miss two key players, Marrone and Berardi. This significantly makes the neroverde weaker as they look for their first win of the season (losing to Torino 0-2 and Livorno at 'home' 1-4) Defender Marcello Gazzola said "The season has started, but our campaign begins in Verona. Their fans always make a difference, but on the field it's 11 vs 11"

REFEREE- Massimiliano Irrati of Pistoia (Tuscany) will take charge of the Bentegodi game. He ironically took charge of last seasons 1-1 draw between the clubs in Modena, giving Hellas a penalty (which Gomez missed). His overall record when taking charge of Verona games is..Games 11..Verona wins 6..draws 4..lost 1.

Mandorlini Pre-Sassuolo

The coach prepares for a six-pointer against fellow promoted team.

"We're expecting a tough game..we don't need to tell the players how important this will be". The Ravenna native continued, "Roma? For 60 minutes we did very well and defended as a strong unit. The first goal killed morale, we could have handled the situation better."

Speaking about the new signing Iturbe, Mandorlini said "We know of his obvious quality, but he must demonstrate this on the field to become a regular."

Preparing for Sassuolo

News and views in the run-up to next weekends game at Bentegodi..

Mandorlini- "The break has been useful in allowing us to rest after intense pre-season and first two games. The market has been great, Iturbe gives us some pace that Martinho aside we were missing.
Sassuolo attack well, they haven't had a great start to the season but it's only two games, they won't panic."

Injury news- Bomber Luca Toni missed the friendly game against the Primavera side, he has been working in the swimming pool after a small muscle injury. The medical team will evaluate him in the run up to the Sassuolo match.

Icelandic midfielder Emil Hallfredsson returned back early from international duty after problems with his knee and will continue the recovery this week. Jorginho is also on a differing training routine as he battles to be fit for next weekend. Albertazzi and Agostini continue their recovery from injury, whilst the only certainty to miss the game is Cirigliano who has had dental work.

Laner- "A win against Sassuolo will be worth double in our fight for safety. The results have been good so far, beating Milan was great, losing to Roma is no disgrace."