For a fairytale start to a young Englishman’s career look to Slovakia where Jamie Lawrence has just completed two seasons as a professional footballer by sealing a second league and cup double. The double-double began on 29 April when Lawrence’s AS Trencin defeated Slovan Bratislava, the established force of the Slovakian game, 3-1 to claim the cup. On 8 May the same team were beaten 4-0 in the Super Liga and the 23-year-old had the fourth major medal of his burgeoning career.
Lawrence is now enjoying a break before returning to pre-season ahead of Trencin’s Champions League campaign. He is visiting the family home in Amsterdam, attending a friend’s wedding in Devon, and looking forward to Euro 2016, particularly Group B, which features Wales, England, Russia and Slovakia.
Lawrence is qualified to play for either home nation and now immersed in Slovakian football, he is also ideally placed to assess Jan Kozak’s team, who begin their campaign against Wales on 11 June at the Stade de Bordeaux. “Their obvious big players are Marek Hamsik at Juventus, Vladimir Weiss [Al-Gharafa], and Martin Skrtel [Liverpool]. That’s pretty much the core of their team,” Lawrence says. “The whole Slovakian system depends on them being a team that works together, working hard for each other, all of them getting on. I think they do it quite well, but those three are definitely the core of their team. There’s only a few players in the Slovakia squad, who play in the league.”
The five Super Liga players selected in the initial 27-man squad by Kozak, the coach since 2013, are Slovan’s Jan Mucha, Adam Zrelek and Kornel Salata, Zilina’s Victor Pecovsky and Lawrence’s team-mate, Matus Bero. Skrtel, who arrived at Anfield from Lawrence’s club via Zenit Saint Petersburg, is the major name. “Yeah, absolutely, and he used to play for Trencin. He was here in the summer for our opening tournaments,” says Lawrence. “He still has an apartment here in the city, so sometimes he comes to watch the games.”
Slovakia qualified for the finals finishing second in their group, claiming 22 points, five fewer than Spain and three more than Ukraine. They recorded a fine 2-1 victory over the Euro 2008 and 2012 champions, defeating Vincente del Bosque’s side 2-1 in October 2014 at Stadion pod Dubnom, losing last September’s return 2-0 in Oveido. Their sole other loss was to Belurus in October, at Zelina’s Dubnom.
Lawrence says: “It’s going to be a tough group. Russia are probably going to come last and Slovakia could surprise people – I think it will really be between England and Wales and depending how they both perform.”
England take on Slovakia at Saint‑Etienne’s Stade Geoffroy Guchard in the final group match on 20 June. “Definitely it will be a tough game for England. Slovakia have had a great qualifying, they’ve got very good players,” Lawrence says. “The English can’t take them too lightly. I can play for England and Wales, and I live here so for me its really interesting.”
Lawrence has a maturity gained from his father, Steve, moving the family from London to Amsterdam in 2008 to further his career, and his subsequent experience of spells at Harlem, Ajax, Sparta and RKC Waalwijk before the breakthrough at Trencin. He is also versatile, able to operate in defence, in a wide left berth, and a holding role, which is his favourite.
Yet despite this, and Lawrence’s trophy-winning success, there has been no interest in his services from England or Wales. “Not recently,” he says. “Maybe a couple of years ago there was some contact, mainly when I was playing in Holland still. Apart from that I haven’t heard anything. Absolutely I would welcome interest. Who doesn’t want to play international football? That would be great.”
Lawrence is keen to establish himself in defensive midfield in Martin Sevela’s side. “The trainer likes to use me in a lot of different roles, I’m very versatile,” he says. “I can play left centre-back, left-back, even left midfield-slash-left winger. It can be positive and negative, but I like defensive midfield.
“I talked to him and said: ‘I really like playing there.’ Our midfield has been very stable this season so I haven’t had much time to play there, I’ve had to slot in elsewhere. I played the last seven games at centre-back, that’s where I was needed. To be given the chance when we beat Slovan 4-0 to win the title to play in my favourite position, I was really buzzing. It showed in my performance, I had a great game.”
The second consecutive double was also memorable. “It’s an amazing feeling. At the beginning of the season we had the feeling we had the possibility of doing it,” Lawrence says. “That we had more or less same team as last year, we didn’t sell too many players. So we were all kind of confident in the beginning that we would do it. And I’m not surprised, which is strange. It feels amazing, a bit different to the first time because the first time was the first trophy I’d won and I was new here, stuff like that.
“Now it kind of feels like we really did deserve it and we played consistently all season so it’s not really a surprise that it came but no, it feels amazing.”
Trencin romped to the second championship by claiming 81 points from 33 games, 12 better than Slovan. It means Champions League football for a second year on the bounce, when they will compete in the second knockout round.
“Last year we were knocked out in the first round by Steaua Bucharest – a really tough draw, they’re the most difficult team we could get. We ended up being unseeded and getting the top ranked team,” Lawrence says. “We went away and won 3-2 so [having lost 2-0 at home]. It shows you that maybe if we had a different draw it could’ve been different.” This time Trencin are seeded so will avoid Celtic, Red Bull Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb.
But the big question for now is, can Trencin do a third double in three years? Lawrence laughs. “Its always possible,” he says. “We’d be definitely the first team in history to do that. Yeah, why not?”
