Revista PowerPlay

Greetings to all PPM managers with this special edition of PP Magazine. Today we will not be dealing with virtual sport, but with the real one, and at the highest level. A long time sports journalist and now media manager Jozef Korbel, who has been the media manager of the world class cyclist Peter Sagan for the last seven years and also one of his closest friends, has accepted the invitation of PP Magazine editorial team.

The meeting took place at the PPM headquarters in Bratislava on Thursday, January 29, 2015 where Mr. Korbel met with the co-founder and CEO of PPM Ivan tuttle Krechňák. Ivan has instroduced PPM team as well as the work of each department on the current projects to our special guest. The following friendly conversation was of course about sports and about the common interest of encouraging the youth to take up sports. 

Later on, Mr. Korbel also found time to answer a few questions for PP Magazine and he has also provided us with some prescious pictures from his personal archive:

I will start by introducing you to the PP Magazine readers. You are 57 years old with a degree in economy and postgraduate degree in journalism. Your career is connected with several Slovak print media. You began your career with supervising columns about youth sports which might not seem that attractive at the first glance. What was the scope of your work? What benefits did it bring you considering we can still see you working with youth to this day?

- Work with young people fulfills me. It makes me younger and I really enjoy it. I started writing in 1981 in the daily newspaper Šport, where I was responsible for the soccer and hockey youth for seven years. It's interesting that now when I'm older I'm working with young sportspeople again. Working with young athletes is beautiful, but also complicated. They are just kids or teenagers who have their dream or goal and they try to achieve it. But there are many obstacles before these sports enthusiasts can reach the very top. There are several elements at work such as character, strong will, talent, parents, school, club, girfriends etc. My task is to make sure everything is in tune and to remove all the obstacles on that difficult road. It's a long distance run, but I believe it will bring results!

Could you tell us more about your work with youth these days? Who can we expect to hear about from the kids under your wings?

- As I was saying, working with youth is most demanding and it requires a lot of sacrifices. The situation in sport in our country is much more complicated and worse than it used to be during the communist era. Back then, there were great clubs for talented youth, sporting facilities and other things, but it all disappeared over time. The government is slowly moving away from sports and the whole burden remains on the shoulders of parents and some willing sponsors. It's no wonder that Slovak sport is on a decline. We only have some flashes, some success here and there, but that's because there is no systematic work like there was in the past! And so I am really glad when I meet people who are willing to work with youth or even finance it. That's one of the reasons why I have been working for AA Sports Management agency for the past four years. Here I met an enthusiastic owner Andrej Augustín, a great person, who is also taking care of the ball hockey club Jokerit Petržalka in the extraliga and together we take under our wings young hockey and soccer players. We scout them, help them, communicate, medialize, take care of them and we open up the world for them by sending them abroad to get better at sports, foreign language and such. We have several talented boys between 14 and 25 years of age and I believe that we will help them fulfill their dreams. Hockey names such as Tomek, Bubela, Grman, Krištof, Varga, Holešinský, Šimun, Solenský or soccer ones Valjent, Lády, Lukáčik, Lénart, Chromek, Bellas, Fischer and others will be heard about in the sports community and public. And more are coming in. There are talents in Slovakia, we just need to deal with them responsibly and systematically!

Which sporting events have you attended as a journalist? Can you remember some moments from sports history that you have personally witnessed?

- During those 27 years of journalism work there was a lot I have been through, writing as a sports journalist for daily newspapers Šport, Smena, Nový Čas or Plus 1 deň... I have been to a lot of places, seen some interesting countries and it's hard to pick one thing because I felt good and content everywhere. Of course I have always had a soft spot for southern European countries. In the beginnings there were youth tournaments in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, later on farewell match of Oleg Blokhin in Kiev, several finals of Champions League, then my expeditions after the velvet revolution when I was visiting Czechoslovak sportsmen (Horváth, Scherer, Chovanec, Straka, Moravčík, Vencel, Glonek, Tittel, Dubovský...) abroad together with my colleagues. Beautiful memories...

Many talented pupils and juniors move on to less demanding activities as they get older which, fortunately, is not the case with Peter Sagan. When did you start to understand what kind of a potential he has? How did your cooperation come about? How would you describe your relationship?

- Peter Sagan is an exceptional talent, literally a centennial athlete! I met him in 2008 when he was 18. Just recently he celebrated quarter of a century. He had plenty of potential even then, but he was doing mountain bikes where he was the world junior champion in that year. A fantastic cyclist and a great person. It was only a matter of time before he would switch to road cycling. He did that in 2009 and soon his career sky-rocketed in the Italian team Liquigas. The whole world suddenly became aware of a new young hero. I have been taking care of Peter Sagan as his media manager for 7 years now. I arrange his press conferences, media outings, plenty of interviews, various events in Slovakia, I manage his Facebook page, but I also do a lot of personal things, even for his family. But it's a job done from the heart. And our relationship? The fact that we are entering our 8th year together says it all...

Could you tell us more about the personal team of Peter Sagan? How do you divide your duties?

- Peter Sagan is represented for third year now by an Italian agency DMTC, of which I am a part. There are marketing director Marco Del Checcolo, sporting manager Giovanni Lombardi, office supervisor Mario Maratea, marketing manager Katarína Smolková, physiotherapist Maroš Hlad and I deal with the media stuff...

How does your day on Tour de France look like? Do you have opportunities to support Peter somewhere on the track? How does Peter's popularity manifest away from the cameras?

- Tour de France is a truly magnificent event. Together with Peter's father Ľubomír Sagan I have been a part of it three times when Peter shone and won green jerseys for winning the points classification! His popularity is immense, people are greeting us at every step, we meet a lot of Slovak fans and I must say that Peter is popular among fans from other countries as well. At the start or in the finish there are always plenty of fans waiting for him at the bus to get an autograph or a photo, they shout, cheer and the atmosphere is quite special every year. Together with his father we go to the first ten stages and then to the final one in Paris. We always go to the start of the race which is around noon, there we show our support for Peter, his father gives him a christian blessing on his forehead and then we travel to the finish area where we wait for him while watching the race unfold on the big screen. Of course we meet a lot of fans along the way, we talk to them and we keep gaining new friends...

Peter looks like a cool guy who doesn't seek out any conflicts, but he becomes a predator in the race and sometimes he gets hold of something that doesn't belong to him on the podium. The affair with the pinched hostess was clearly troubling Peter and he apologized to her publicly. Did it have any serious aftermath?

- That happened on the Belgian classic Tour of Flanders two years ago in early April when he finished in second place... We were nearby when he was on the podium and my colleague Michal shouted at him: pinch her... And so Peter pinched the butt of the hostess called Maja... Of course, none of us realized at that time what consequences  it would have. The English media took up the story and called it sexual harrassment and stuff like that, the media were full of it and the tabloids made an affair out of it. In the end Peter apologized, he gave the hostess a bouquet at the next race and that was the end of it. Then I heard from our Belgian fan club that Maja became popular in the country and several companies asked for her for various events... Everybody wanted the hostess that was pinched by Sagan!

Peter decided to move to a new team after 5 years with Liquigas - Cannondale. As of 2015 he is a member of the Tinkoff-Saxo team where he adapted really quickly. Tinkoff-Saxo manager Bjarne Riis stated just before Peter's arrival to the team that if Sagan doesn't win any of the spring classics, he will be disappointed. Don't such statements put Peter under unncessery pressure? It seems like positive challenges such as a present for your birthday (stage win at the TdF) are met more easily by him.

- Peter likes challenges. He is a total professional. The change of teams will certainly help him because he will be tended to much better and he will also have stronger teammates around him. I personally think that Peter can perform his tasks to everyone's satisfaction. And my present? That was at his first Tour de France, it was in the French town of Metz on July 6, 2012, when he won and came to me and said: This is a present for you!

What else do you do when you have free time? Do you do sports? We heard you are a big fan of FC Barcelona and you organize their fan club. Can you tell us more about that?

-  To be honest I usually don't have that much free time, but I try to spend it with my girlfriend Ivetka and my children. I like to relax in the garden. I also like to travel and that's why I help with media exposure for travel agency Sports Travel. Of course I don't neglect my soccer, I play regularly with journalists every Wednesday. I am a fan of good offensive and variable soccer which has been practiced for years by Dutch and Spanish teams. I have been a fan of Ajax and FC Barcelona for a long time, I am actually a vice-president of FC Barcelona fan club in Slovakia which is called Penya Barcelonista Eslovaca dels Alts Tatras.  It was founded by Messrs. Bellas, Potuček and Jurica, we have about 300 members, we organize trips, tournaments and other activities. For instance last August when we were at a congress in Barcelona, we have ceremonially unveiled our logo at Camp Nou in front of the club's management. We cooperate with other fan clubs in nearby countries, mainly Slovenia, Montenegro, Poland and Czech Republic so our fan club is alive and kicking!

Final question is about Peter Sagan again. At which races will you be present to support Peter directly this year?

- I don't know that yet... Last time we were on an exhibition in Israel and we baptized the creation of new team called Cycling Academy Team under the patronage of Peter Sagan. The season is just beginning. Peter will be racing in Qatar and Oman, but I am thinking about a spring classic in March or April... What I know for sure is that I will be there for the Tour de France as usual!

Peter Sagan's fans can look forward to his activity in the peloton, his acrobatic tricks and I believe we will be seeing him on the podium a lot. We all wish him to steer clear of injuries and to be satisfied with himself at the end of the season. Thank you Mr. Korbel for a pleasant interview and for finding the time in your schedule and accepting our invitation. I wish you a lot of success in your future endeavours with youth and supporting Peter Sagan. PowerPlay Manager community sends their greetings to Peter Sagan.