Interview with the founder of Trophy14 (Juraj Tomašik) “Trophy14 will help every single athlete to assist in some way.”
Sports News: How did you come up with the idea?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): In the summer of 2014 when I was on vacation with my wife, I was constantly thinking how to help the biggest number of athletes which are contacting me every day if I could find them some club and also vice versa the clubs wanted me to find some players for them. I was sorry I could not help to all of them, because I couldn’t control such a number of players. The idea occurred to me to combine it all into one: players, clubs, agents, coaches and make it easier for their communication. When I started my sports career something like that didn’t exist and I had to find everything through my friends and on the internet so I could get into some contacts. Trophy14 will change hours of searching on the internet into a few clicks.
Sports News: What’s the problem that you are trying to solve with Trophy14?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): My wife told me “everyone will go pass you as an agent; you are giving them all of your contacts “. Yes exactly my point is that everybody will find each other “. Sporting platform Trophy14 is trying to solve a fundamental problem which is making an easier communication, be found and visualized between clubs, players, coaches, agents. To maximize the opportunities for each individual athlete in the world who wants to find a club and become a professional or to find an agent which will represent him. Also the club can find a player or an agent for cooperation very easily. The point is that they can communicate with each other whenever they want. I know that there is a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, but the Trophy14 is where you can find sports resume of each user. It focuses specifically on four sports: basketball, handball, football, volleyball. Later we will add more sports If the people show interest about the new platform.
I know that not every athlete is the next “STAR” that’s why I want to give a chance to everyone to raise the profile and be found. We know that perhaps those “STARS” will not sign into our platform, because the clubs and agents will find them by themselves, but our platform serves for all the athletes of various performances and levels who want to fulfill their dreams.
Sports News: How do we take advantage of Trophy14?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): Anyone who fills out his complete profile (Sports resume) on Trophy14 can be traced very easily, there is a search engine which serves for it, in which you specify what position, age, gender, club, country you are looking for and the system will pop out all the options that are located on the Trophy14. The more you have filled out your profile, the faster and easier you can be found by other users of Trophy14. Your task is to only fill out the profile. It happens very often that a player fills out only his name, age and video. They forget to fill out the position on which they play and sometimes from which country they are. Only on the basis of a fully completed profile can the clubs, agents, coaches look you up.
Sports News: Where did Trophy14 reach so far?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): We have launched our sports platform just 1month ago and we are about to upgrade our new version and open it up to public in the next few months, hopefully by the beginning of the June-July 2021. We actually have some players on our platform uploading their content already. We invited players, agents, clubs and coaches who are still active and our platform is growing every day. Still some profiles for FREE are available so people can use this opportunity.
The platform have already 13622 views since 1st February 2021 when we launched the first time.
Sports News: Why the name Trophy14?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): It was not easy to find the correct name for the sports platform, where all the athletes, clubs, agents, coaches will meet. I chose TROPHY, because trophies are won in any sport and it is a symbol of victory. And number 14 just because the sports platform was invented in 2014, and in every single collective sport the players are wearing jerseys with numbers and we gave the platform number 14, which represents us. By the way the last few years of my active volleyball career, I wore a jersey with a number 14. J
Sports News: Where do you see Trophy14 from here?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): We want the Trophy 14 to become over time the biggest sport database of sports profiles in the whole world. When someone says Trophy14, so everyone will know what exactly that is, that there is a place where you can interact with athletes from all over the world and share experiences, finding the right people for the they sport growth. We want the system to be fair to all and so everyone has an equal chance to be found and to find the contact or a club which they dream of.
Sports News: What you’d like to share with our readers?
Juraj Tomašik (Trophy14): I have learned a lot over the years I have been in professional sports during my 28 years career. Mainly to communicate with people and to tune onto their wave because everybody has a different nationality and sometimes it is not easy. Patience and empathy is something that can be learned. Working with people is the hardest job and that’s why it should be appreciated. I have always tried to be open to everyone and to hear out the opinions of others. Sport is what was connecting us even during the bad times such as wars etc. Via Trophy14 I want to ensure that the players from one continent can exchange the experiences with the players from another continent. I believe that even if not now, but eventually Trophy14 will help every single athlete to assist in some way.
Registration here: Trophy 14 – Home
Founder of Trophy14 (Juraj Tomasik)
