Talk:Slovakia national football team

Opening heading

The article is at odds with the infobox as to what the first game as Slovakia was...

Team Nickname

I was in South African and many people were calling them the Fighting Jondas and Repre. Why are you people trying to act like this nickname doesnt exist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.70.68.114 (talk) 20:09, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

The team nickname is given as "The Fighting Jondas". But what does this mean in English? What is a "jonda"?
Flonto 20:31, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

I never heard of this nickname, it does not even sound Slovakian —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.79.136.164 (talk) 11:51, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

it was probably joke, the nickname is unknown --Vegetator (talk) 06:18, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Jonda or Janda is the name they called Czechoslovakian immigrants --Ivan Kzevac —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.190.121.53 (talk) 01:27, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Fighting Jondas is Fake. Im from Slovakia.--Dodko999 (talk) 14:14, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

This "nickname" was something fabricated by ESPN Marketing (via AM I Collective studios in South Africa) for their World Cup Murals series. In Slovakia, the national team is simply referred to as "Repre," as in "representation." Alternative explanation is that they (marketing studio) came to this English language page for the national team and took it from here. Regardless, the name is not used at all in or around Slovakia for the national team and should be removed from this encyclopedia as well. Disastorpasztor (talk) 04:11, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for my english. please lock this page for unregistred user, because nickname is always change. --Dodko999 (talk) 08:21, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Why? Simple, I suggest N/A - slovak national team has no nickname. Repre is slang (or slang short version "representation") and can have a lot of sence, but definitely it is not nickname. Similar incorect nick name is given in czech team. It contain just Nation team transleted to Czech —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.5.210.202 (talk) 10:55, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

I did a quick research on this problem regarding the editing of the nickname and found this article Slovakia: The Fighting Jondas written in Vanity Fair. Further research has led to the following articles from ESPN 1, The Australian 2, Goal.com 3 and Soccerlens 4. In all of the articles there is no doubt left as to the Slovakian team being refered to in this matter (The Australian article actually makes it a point to say that). I am also satisfied there are plenty of sources regarding this and that more could be found. I will go ahead and use some of the references here to cite the teams nickname.GaussianCopula (talk) 21:19, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Further research has yielded this interesting article from the Slovakian press where the author is also confused as to why Slovakian fans don't know anything about the "Fighting Jondas" or "Bojujúci Jondovia" in the Slovak language. And the article attributes it to an american ad agency called Wieden and Kennedy. Prezývka slovenských futbalistov? Bojujúci Jondovia, tvrdia Američania (article in Slovak). There might be enough material here for creating a section in the main page regarding a possible controversy or simply the origins of the nickname. Hopefully someone with a good understanding of Slovak can contribute.

Nevertheless the nickname (whether attributed to them by Slovak fans or an american ad agency) is without a doubt being used freely and with regards to the Slovak national football team. As can be seen in the sources provided above plus in languages other than English as can be read in this Danish article from Ekstra Bladet in a box profiling the Slovakian team 5.GaussianCopula (talk) 21:54, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Just found yet another article in Slovak from the sports magazine o športe Slovenskí futbalisti dostali hanlivú prezývku which once again appears to be critical of the nickname given in English and provides further information regarding its possible origins now in use in the English media.GaussianCopula (talk) 13:45, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for my english. fighting jondas is fiction (mystification) of espn. espn need nickname for every team on T-shirt and fighting jondas is their mystification. see slovakia wiki, nickname=prezývka. i am from slovakia and i never hear about fighting jondas --Dodko999 (talk) 14:17, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

and thank you for lock this page --Dodko999 (talk) 14:18, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Current source of nickname violates WP:CIRCULAR unfortunately. But still I have found sources for it which are adequate. We can take time discussing this and come to an adequate agreement as to whether Fighting Jondas will be included as a nickname or as a part of a controversy section. Please read some of the articles I've included regarding the name specially those of slovak sources and we can continue discussing it.GaussianCopula (talk) 14:28, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

An issue that can't be ignored though is that this is the English Wikipedia and as such the Fighting Jondas (regardless of origin) is being used in the English media (as provided by sources from US, British and Australian newspapers). I also included a Danish newspaper usage of the nickname and there are more. I am still looking for a use in Slovak that is of a non-controversial nature although in and of itself that also refers to it being the nickname given in the English speaking media.GaussianCopula (talk) 14:44, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

After doing further research on this issue I was unable to locate additional Slovak language sources. Unfortunately, my understanding of Slovakian is limited to using web translation so other editors getting involved would be helpful. I expanded the search of the term to the other 2 languages I am fluent on, which is German and Spanish. It was easy enough to find a German source regarding the term "Bojovni Jondovci" or "The Fighting Jondas" as both RTL de1 and German sports magazine sport.de 2 have profiles of the team which use this term and the accurate German translation "Die kämpfenden Jondas". In Spanish language media I only found a reference to "Los Jondas Guerreros" sp1 which is a rough translation of the term more adequate with "the warring Jondas".

I think it is clear that the nickname is not one originating within Slovakia but is of prevalent use in the media. Further, I found out that this issue has been brought up in Wikipedia at least since February of 2008 Wik1. With a reference provided in there that the use of this term dates not as has been indicated here that the recent World Cup marketing and ESPN and whatnot did it but from a documented source dated March 2009 from England Football Online EFO1. So it is not a term of recent use.

Anyways, I will do more looking into the subject and hopefully there will be more comments and suggestions regarding the matter.GaussianCopula (talk) 18:26, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

With regards to the use of "The Fighting Jonas" here are my suggetions:

1.st It makes no sense to ignore the use of this nickname in the media. As I have indicated in links above, the usage of this nickname within the non-Slovak media is quite prevalent.

2.nd Referencing this page to the Slovakian wiki svn1 is not the correct thing to do. Not because the information contained therefore is incorrect but because it contravenes WP:Circular, as well as, the English Wikipedia and Slovakian Wikipedia have different set of rules with regards to the information that it contains. It is also important to note that the nickname in the Slovakian wikipedia has never been referenced.

3.rd The issue regarding "The Fighting Jonas" based on the information that has been provided should now go beyond the discussion of whether it exists to a discussion of whether it should be included in the nickname section or in some other section in the article. I do not think that it does any good to ignore that the use of "The Fighting Jondas" exists. Not only in the English speaking media but at least also in Danish, German, and Spanish speaking media. As such, the most appropiate discussion belongs to where it should be included.

My suggestion is that the page should have 2 nicknames allocated to it. "Repre" as well as "Bojovni Jondovci" or "The Fighting Jondas". It makes no sense to ignore all this information in the media regarding the nickname.

I would also indicate that based on the Slovakian sources I have posted above, that a "The Fighting Jondas Controversy" page can be created. I do not believe that this is needed but it might be something that might be established based on commentary regarding these comments.

Hopefully there will be some comments regarding this.GaussianCopula (talk) 23:29, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Are we the fighting jondas? ok, i have one question. who is "Jonda" or "Jondo" or "Jondovci"? --Dodko999 (talk) 07:02, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

I have not been able to trace the origin of the nickname being used worldwide outside of Slovakia. But nevertheless it exists. Outside of the following Slovakian blog which speculates about the origin svnblog(although as I have stated previously this is not something that originated this year), I have not found further information on why they are called "The Fighting Jondas".

I will include the nickname "The Fighting Jondas" as a recognized worldwide nickname for the team and there could be a discussion regarding whether a note might be included that indicates that this is the nickname for the team outside of Slovakia.

I will include 4 clear references to the team's nickname from 4 different countries, in order to indicate that this is the known nickname for the team.

Including a controversy page regarding the name based on Slovakian sources I have included seems moot, since they all reference it to the current events regarding the World Cup marketing and yet I have posted a source that indicates that this nickname predates such events.

Hopefully this will suffice with regards to this issue.GaussianCopula (talk) 20:45, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

I´m sorry but what you have are several sources which used this so-called nickname, the fact is that hundreds, or thousands of others newspapers, TVs, radios, whatever have never even heared about this. These invented nicknames are not making any sense, if ESPN will have a change of heart and start calling Slovak national football team the Horny Bulls will we include it in the article and present it as a world-wide known and used nickname? I say that we should keep things as they are, Repre is the nickname (no matter how unoriginal) of the team which is beeing used as by Slovak so foreign medias and wether "Fighting Jondas" will be even ever used in future remains to be seen. If yes, if it will truly popularize itself than we should include but not now based on several articles which covers small percent of readers and football fans around the globe. --EllsworthSK (talk) 13:04, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

If 4 newspaper will write: Obama is dead (because newspapers have bad information), GaussianCopula will write Obama is and was american president.--Dodko999 (talk) 08:35, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

The nickname "The Fighting Jondas" is a joke. What references are used to support that to be a true nickname? A cartoon or a mural and a few recent internet articles!? Someone came up with this hoax and the foreign media "bought" it. It is easy to create hoax these days - a caricaturist comes up with a drawing, someone writes it on the Wikipedia page, journalists use it in the articles and those can be used as references back on the Wikipedia page. Ridiculous. There is no nickname for the team other than just the internal abbreviation of Slovak Representation, e.i. "Repre" see the following links:, , It would be appropriate if someone with the command of Slovak language as well as some football background took charge of this site and stop the reappearance of that meaningless expression. If you really read the articles mentioned in the discussion above () and () you would learn that this nickname was never heard of in Slovakia and no one knows what it is supposed to mean. They even don't know how to translate it "Jondovia" or "Jondaci". It was supposedly a nickname for immigrants of Czechoslovakia and is based on the Check not Slovak surname, and has nothing to do with the football team. I would appreciate if Wikipedia stopped promoting the fabricated nonsense and cleared "Fighting Jondas" from this site once and for all. Thank you.

References

FeroTruhla (talk) 08:44, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Considering the effort I have taken to find all those articles above, of course, I have read them. Kind of silly for me to post the links and not read them, no? The situation remains though, that worldwide the team is being called "The Fighting Jondas". It's difficult to ignore this.GaussianCopula (talk) 14:40, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

I will open an RfC so that more discussion can develop.GaussianCopula (talk) 14:47, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Biggest Defeat

The team that played against Argentina in Mendoza was not Slovakia National Team. It was Slovak league representative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ZERONICKNAME (talk • contribs) 17:11, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Issue of Slovakia team nickname

There is a dispute with regards to the team nickname "The Fighting Jondas" which even though is being extensively used in print media, it seems to have originated outside of Slovakia. A lengthy thread and continuous deletion of the sourced reference has not resolved this. Further opinions are requested.GaussianCopula (talk) 14:49, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

If the nickname, "Repre" as well as "The Fighting Jondas" are used by reliable sources then I see no reason as to why the nickname shouldn't be used.--Giants27(Contribs|WP:CFL) 15:05, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

I dont think Repre is an actual nickname, but the Fighting Jondas are not used by by everyone. It seems that the younger generation use it, but even some slovaks do not know where it came from. I dont know if this will help, but there is a Facebook fan page about the Fighting Jondas. Some of the members have confirmed that it is being used in Bratislava, but even they have different opinions about where it came from. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.70.68.114 (talk) 16:55, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Stop all this nonsense at long last, GaussianCopula. You give a new dimension to the phrase, "obstinate like a mule". This utter nonsense, "Fighting Jondas", is NEVER, EVER used in Slovakia by anyone, other than in farcical reaction to the fabricated nonsense discussed here. Most of all, this alleged nickname CANNOT be given to a Slovak team because "Jonda" is a variation of a typical CZECH surname, "Janda". "Jonda" is a CZECH-sounding name, and it is highly offensive to attempt to attribute a Czech-sounding name to a Slovak national team. Faterson (talk) 21:16, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

File:Slovakia national football team from 1939.jpg Nominated for Deletion

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Update: Fighting Jondas

I see a number of people questioning where the hell "Fighting Jondas" came from. The answer is from Wikipedia itself—this hoax edit in 2006 by a dynamic IP and whose identity will probably never be known. There is absolutely no mention of the "Fighting Jondas" before July 4, 2006, anywhere in the world. Seeing as this team nickname is a complete hoax, I am going to remove mention of it on the page. --Jprg1966 ^(talk) 02:25, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

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Contradictory information

Hi, I just noticed that some of the information regarding the number of caps earned and goals scored by certain players (e.g. pertaining to Szilárd Németh) appears to contradict itself if one is to examine both the "most capped players" and "top goalscorers" sections of the article.

Martin Valjent

Where is the information that Martin Valjent retired from international team from? I can't find any sources confirming it. SonOfPlisskin (talk) 00:04, 18 June 2024 (UTC)