Dávid Hancko: ”I learned that there’s more to life than football.”
As a youth, he was too small, and at the most crucial time in his career, he broke both his legs. Yet nothing and no one could knock Dávid Hancko (27) off the football pitch. We spoke with the Slovakian Feyenoord defender about his unrelenting motivation, the magical power of fans, and balancing football with fatherhood.
On a delightful trip down memory lane with the central defender, we find ourselves in the small Slovakian village of Kamenec pod Vtáčnikom. Until the age of ten, Dávid’s daily routine rarely changed. Dávid Hancko: “After school, I went to football training at the local club, and before I was even back home, I’d already be off to the football field next to our house. I’d stay there with my friends until late in the evening.” In short: school, football, sleep, repeat.
Hancko describes his family as his biggest supporters. “We didn’t have much, but I never missed anything. My parents always did everything they could to let me play football and for my sister to ski.” Sport was a shared passion in the Slovakian household. “I played in a team with older boys since kindergarten, so I was a few heads shorter than everyone else. Referees often said I couldn’t play because of that.” His father, who also coached his team, would write permission notes. “He told the match officials I was his responsibility. He believed I could keep up with the others.” A wise man, as it turned out a few years later.
“Who wants a boat with broken sails?”
Even though Dávid constantly heard from all sides how small the chances were of becoming a professional footballer, he was determined. “I just couldn’t picture myself being a police officer or something like that,” he laughs. That tunnel vision came with him to the big city in 2013 when he joined the MŠK Žilina academy. “The academy in Žilina gave me the belief that you can achieve anything, as long as you work hard enough. I learned there that it’s in my nature to always want to improve.”
Hancko’s career then hit a dark patch. “Because I had broken both my legs, I had multiple surgeries at sixteen and seventeen. This is a decisive age in professional football—when it’s usually clear whether you’ll make it or not.” Doubts took over. “Who wants a boat with broken sails?” Still, the central defender gave everything he had to recover properly. His childhood dream drove him to make the impossible possible. And he did.
The Road to Rotterdam
Dávid’s determination led to his debut with Žilina’s first team in 2016. Less than two years later, he was called up for the Slovak national team, and via Italy’s Fiorentina, he ended up at Sparta Prague. Just goes to show: where there’s a will, there’s a way. That way led to Rotterdam, where he moved about a year ago with the love of his life.
“How did I meet her?” A big grin appears on the Slovakian’s face as he starts talking about his wife, five years his senior, Czech tennis player Kristýna Plíšková. “She liked my photo on Instagram, we started chatting, and from that moment on, we never left each other’s side.” He explains how they ended up living together in an apartment for nearly half a year not even a month after meeting. Not out of necessity, but by choice—COVID had made staying indoors advisable, but staying together was a deliberate and happy decision.
A relationship between two top athletes can be tricky with all the training, matches, and travel, but with all sports on pause due to the pandemic, Dávid and Kristýna didn’t have to deal with that. One thing led to another. They moved in—this time officially—got married, and soon after started a family. “Kristýna has paused her tennis career for now, but she might return once baby Adam is older.”
”I just want to spent time with my son.”
“It’s something completely different,” Hancko reflects when we ask him about fatherhood. “When I come home from training or matches, I immediately switch modes. I don’t think about football anymore; I just want to spend time with my son.” According to Kristýna, though, that might need a pinch of salt. “My wife sometimes says it’s still all about football for me,” the Feyenoord player laughs. Life as a dad may not always be a walk in the park, but the walks he takes with Adam through Rotterdam’s park are sacred to him. “I absolutely love it.”
What Dávid has noticed most during those stroller walks are the reactions from fans on the street. A passionate fanbase is nothing new to the center back—he had one at Sparta Prague too, albeit smaller but just as devoted. What took some getting used to in Rotterdam? “When I walk through the city here, everyone is happy to see me.” In Prague, it was always a surprise which way the coin would flip. “There, I’d get a thumbs up one time and a scowl the next, because of the rivalry with Slavia Prague. The only thing I can compare that level of rivalry to is the Klassieker here.”
”You can’t sleep on flowers.”
In his first season at Feyenoord, the club immediately clinched the national title. Whether or not you believe in coincidence, the central defender speaks highly of his football year. “The club, the coaches, the guys, and the supporters—they all make things so much easier for me. They help me play well.
When we ask the stopper if he’s proud of himself, he falls silent for a few seconds. “I think you’re allowed to be proud if you’re doing well, as long as you stay critical. In Slovakia, we say, ‘You can’t sleep on the flowers.’” Football, just like health, can change at any moment, according to Dávid. “You’re only as good as your last match.”
