At the time of the 2010 World Cup finals, the youngest Vladimir Weiss was on the books of Manchester City but on loan at Bolton Wanderers. He would spend time under Walter Smith at Ibrox on a further loan deal the following season, having been linked with a move to Celtic, picking up League Cup and Premier League medals, the final trophies for Rangers before their liquidation in 2012.
Although Weiss would win 66 international caps, his club career would fail to get off the ground, spells in Spain, Italy, Greece and Qatar creating more headlines for a series of off-the-field incidents than for anything he ever achieved on it. Now aged 33, Weiss is currently plying his trade back in Slovakia with champions Slovan Bratislava, having returned to his homeland from Qataris Al-Gharafa in February 2020.
Failure to qualify for Euro2012 would see Weiss’ father resign as Slovakia manager in February 2012. He had combined his international duties in the 2011/12 campaign with a club role in charge of Slovan Bratislava, whom he led to the Group Stage of the Europa League following a Play-Off victory over Roma.
A tough draw against Paris Saint Germain, Red Bull Salzburg and Athletic Bilbao saw the Slovakians struggle and finish bottom of the section. Weiss left in August 2012, his next challenge being in Kazakhstan, perhaps ironically to manage Artmedia Bratislava’s Champions League victims from 2005, Kairat Almaty.
In his second season there, Weiss won the Kazakhstan Cup, repeating that feat in 2014/15. Kairat then narrowly missed out on a double and the solitary Champions League slot, finishing one point behind the wealthy champions FC Astana.
In March 2016, he became the manager of the Georgian national team, spending more than four years in there before resigning in November 2020. He returned to Slovan Bratislava for a second spell in May 2021 and led them to the Slovak Super Liga in both his first and second seasons. Weiss remains there at the time of writing, August 2023.
I’ll leave the last word on the Artmedia Bratislava episode to the man Weiss faced that week in the early part of the 2005/06 season, new Celtic manager Gordon Strachan, writing the following year…
