Zoltan Stieber

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News

Some time ago, we here at the Gloverscast decided we’d test out some questionable Latvian (and a little Slovienian) to try and track down one of the 2013 Wembley heroes – Vitalijs Maksimenko – and we did! (you can read our interview with him… HERE)

This week, we dusted off the Google Translate, set it to Hungarian and tried to find another former Yeovil star – Zoltan Stieber – and wouldn’t you know, it worked!

The former Aston Villa youngster joined Yeovil Town on loan in November 2007 and only actually spent a few months with the Glovers.

But, he has gone on to have an incredible career, which includes playing at UEFA Euro 2016 for his country and playing in the top flight of both Germany and the USA.

We sent some questions to Zoltan and he remembers his time at Yeovil fondly.

“I signed for Villa I think in 2007. I used to train with the first team at Villa regularly and it was the next step in my career to go on loan, so i was really exited to go on loan to Yeovil Town and get some first Team Football! “

It would be a fair assumption that a young Hungarian plying his trade on the verge of the Aston Villa first team may not have heard of a small Somerset club who were in League One, but that wasn’t the case.

“I heard about the club, because i was following the lower leagues as well, but didn’t know much to be honest!”

It was Russell Slade who signed Stieber, initially on a short term loan, but after impressing in his first few games, the deal was extended.

“It was a great experience to work with him, he was my first Coach in first team football so of course I had to adapt, but I learned a lot from him and I am thankful for him that he gave me the chance to get my first games in first team football it helped me a lot for my career”
A lot has been made about how Yeovil have helped young players move through their careers and go on to better things, something which Stieber agrees with – his career in adult football essentially began at Huish Park
“All the players were great with me, they helped me directly and made it easy for me to feel home for my time at Yeovil, this was the biggest step coming out of youth team football, it helped me a lot”
Stieber played 15 times in the Green and White, scoring just once, a winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Brighton in late December of 2007, a moment that Stieber will remember for a while; “It was a great feeling to score the first time in English Football”
Sadly, the Hungarian doesn’t keep in touch with any of his form Yeovil team mates any more, but he did say he keeps an eye out for the results occasionally.
He did want to send his gratitude to the Glovers faithful though
“Thanks for the support, it was a great experience to play in front of 8-9000 fans, the game days were really a dream came true feeling”
Zoltan Stieber may have made more goals than he scored at Yeovil, but you could tell there was quality waiting to burst out – time spent with Wayne Rooney at DC United and scoring at major international tournaments suggests it did find it’s way through!
A huge “köszönöm” (thanks) to Zoltan for asking my questions… where shall Google Translate take us next? Who knows!