Weiss duo prepare to join World Cup father and son club

Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss is confident he will not be accused of favouritism when he names his son – also called Vladimir – in his side for his country’s World Cup opener against New Zealand.

The Weiss family’s footballing pedigree is well established.

The 20-year-old who is on Manchester City’s books is one of his father’s automatic picks, on the right of Slovakia’s midfield, and his appearance at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Tuesday will make him the third member of the Weiss family to play in an international tournament.

The current coach played for Czechoslovakia in the 1990 World Cup while his father, also Vladimir Weiss and now 71, helped Czechoslovakia win the silver medal in the football tournament at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

The youngest member of the dynasty is set to become the fifth player to be coached by his father at the World Cup, and his 45-year-old father admits suspicions of preferential treatment can be hard to deal with for both men.

“It is not easy to coach my son of course, but it is a beautiful thing,” he said on Monday on the eve of Slovakia’s first World Cup appearance as an independent nation.

“My son is a very clever boy who can play football. It is not easy for him with the coach being his father but I believe he will show that he can help his team.”

The coach has happy memories of his own World Cup adventure as a player, Czechoslovakia having reached the quarter-finals at Italia 90.

“I had beautiful memories when I came into the stadium today,” he said. “It reminded me of Florence in 1990, it is a similar kind of stadium.

Following in the footsteps of American coach Bob Bradley and his boy Michael, the Weiss pair join an exclusive club of fathers and sons who have represented their countries as coaches and players in the same tournament.

Italy’s Cesare Maldini could hardly have ignored his legendary son Paolo for France 1998.

Zlatko Kranjcar picked son Niko for Croatia in similar circumstances in 2006 although Serbia and Montenegro coach Ilja Petkovic’s selection of his son Dusan for the same tournament was so clouded by allegations of nepotism that the fed-up player returned home early.