Ales Jirik: I am ready to do everything for the success of Germany

Aleš Jirik played for the youth team of junior´ extraleague Kladno, in which he did not even bad. On the contrary, he was one of the best strikers, but suddenly a break came out and Czech striker disappeared in Germany. "It´s true that I played for the junior, but unfortunately I was not qualified for the A team. Mr Vladimír Kameš gave me the offer, if I wanted to go try to play in Germany. From nineteen years old (with a short break) I play in Germany," he talked about his past.

Former Czech representative is ready to fall for the German homeland. But he is a German citizens not for long. "Only a year ago I got a German civil passport, so I had to hand over the Czech and can thus represent Germany at this year´s championship," describes his national transformation.

Kladno native, who tried to make it through to the senior team, has done work for the Czech Republic, which he represented on two world championships, "In my career, I managed to also play for the Czech national inline hockey, once the IIHF championship organization and one tournament organized by FIRS. I also know many players from the Czech Repoublic," says defender of the German national team.

Aleš Jirik spent in Germany with short breaks for more than thirteen years. And he is not coming back. "Return to the Czech Republic is certainly something, that I don´t want to. In Germany I´m very happy and my family as well. In the summer, I am coming back, but the rest of the season with your family live in Germany and we plan to stay there for forever," he continues.

Inline hockey is not in itself a long-term sport he would pay hockey players throughout the year and earn his living. For many ice hockey player inline serves as the perfect complementary sport and fun at the same time. "In Germany, I play primarily ice hockey. I take inline hockey primarily as a complementary sport, which is an excellent option for summer training," says Ales Jirik.

The Czech hockey player in the service of Germany´s wears from the second game proudly on his jersey letter A, meaning a vice-captain, which is very unusual. "To be honest, I have noticed the A letter on the jersey during the game against Finland," laughs Alex Jirik. "In first duel, one of our players got hurt, so the coaches decided about me behind my back and sewed me an A on my jersey. It is probably also due to the fact that we belong among the oldest in our team," he explains.

Germans recently gained a lot of bronze medals and even reached the title of Vice World Champions on the championship in 2012. But this year it seems to be not so great, mainly due to the many gaming outages of the team. "In the next games we must clearly improve the game forward. Although we defend well, but the game forward is not ideal," says German defender, which may well take a part in the offensive line.

"When we get into a giveaway, we do not score goals from such huge opportunities. We lack peace in the end," adds another criticism, and the factors which Germany must clearly improve.

All participants of the tournament are extremely pleasant of the place and players of the Team Germany are no exception. Ales Jirik remembers the ČEZ Arena from junior years. "In Pardubice I like it here a lot, but I have not exactly good memories. I remember, that we have played here and lost for many many goals. They played against us, for example, with Kolar or Koukal and we to them simply not enough, "he recalls with a smile on his face the difficult beginnings hockey..

The German national team in the tournament presents a nice performance and stronger opponents are having a really hard times. Ales Jirik with his teammates nearly knocked to their knees power-packed team of Sweden. But they will meet Team USA in quarterfinals! "With the Americans it will be extremely tough, probably the toughest game of the tournament at all. I think they are with the Czech team the best teams in the championship, "does not conceal its concern.