King David surrenders England, moves to conquer Italia

February 3rd, 2008 | By: Os Davis | No Comments »

The biggest story this week outta the ‘Republic: defender “King” David Rozehnal. Sneaking in a deal just under the 31 January transfer deadline, S.S. Lazio bagged Rozehnal a mere seven months after joining Newcastle United from Paris Saint-Germain FC.

A little jockspeak from Rozehnal was made retroactively hilarious. Over at SportingLife.com, there’s reportage of a visit made by Diego Maradona to the Newcastle dressing room after the Magpies were right clipped by Arsenal:

Defender David Rozehnal has revealed football legend Diego Maradona was a surprise visitor to the Newcastle dressing room after Tuesday night’s defeat at Arsenal.

The 27-year-old Czech international told the club’s official website: “We met Diego after the game and he came in the dressing room.

“It was really nice of him. It was a lift for us and was quite surreal.

“To meet such a big name in football is great, and something to remember for us.”

Newcastle lost the game 3-0 as their wait for a victory – and indeed, a goal – under new boss Kevin Keegan continued.

Rozehnal added: “It was disappointing again. Arsenal are a good team, but I think we are playing well in patches.

“But we haven’t picked up a result again. That is a concern and we cannot rest easily until we do get that win.”

The day after reportage of the story, Rozehnal was a Biancocelesto. I suppose he’s resting well now.

Club president Lazio Cladius Lotito officially introduced Rozehnal to media as a “complete player” and praised him as “one of the top defenders” of World Cup 2006. Rozehnal noted that “something just wasn’t working” in the six months he played with Newcastle and that he felt more at home in a country like Italy. He also claimed no pretense at “playing from the first minute” and that sitting on the bench for a while would be no problem.

As Rozehnal expressed via translation, “che bella la Lazio!”

And a bit of Newcastle/Czech Republic non-news from month’s end: The Magpies failed to sign midfielder Lubos Kalouda. Juventus was supposedly also attempting to sign Kalouda away from FC Brno, but it seems as though nothing has broken through on that deal yet…

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to start getting hyped up for that other kind of football thing happening today.

Tags: Group E