He was practically born to be a goalkeeper and to walk in his father Matjaž's steps. "I definitely became a goalkeeper because of my father. He has been playing football all his life, as a goalkeeper. I remember imitating him behind the goal while he was training, and tried to throw myself like he did," the best paid Slovenian footballer explained a year and a half ago.
He was noticed in the Media League
Little Jan started running behind the ball in the NK Ločan football club when he was six years old; the senior team NK Ločan presently holds the second place in the Gorenjska League. His father spent a lot of time on the pitch also outside training time. When Jan was 10 he was noticed by the goalkeeper coach of the old Olimpija team Zoran Matović, who invited him to Bežigrad.
Father missed the Tuesday match
Jan is still closely linked with his family. His father, mother and sister watched the first semi-final match of the Champions League in Madrid from the grandstand; both mother and sister came to Munich on Tuesday as well, while his father had work obligations – he transports bread.
Jan is especially attached to his sister Teja, his senior by two years, a member of the Slovenian basketball team and presently a legionnaire in Košice, Slovakia.
In January 2009, while a pupil of the first year of the Intermediate School for Mechanical Engineering in Škofja Loka, he signed a professional contract with Olimpija. There has probably never been a young football player to awaken such interest with his debut in the first Slovenian Football League as the new Olimpija goalkeeper, at that time only 16 years old.
In July of the same year he spent a couple of days being tested by the English first division team Fulham, where he trained with junior players, and a year before he spent a week in Italian Empoli showing his skills. During his first years at Benfica he was loaned to other clubs – at first to Beira Mar, then to Olhanense. He was given his first opportunity in Leirii. The decisive move was probably his departure to Rio Ave in 2012/13 season. The trainer there was the former goalkeeper Nuno Espirito Santo: "I value Oblak for his technical skills, but also for his character. He is a goalkeeper who faces challenges silently, without any stress or nervousness regardless of who his opponent is." Joao Tomas, Oblak's former team-mate at Rio Ave, describes Jan: "In spite of being quite tall he is still very agile and has good hand. We used to describe them as "soft", as he always managed to catch the ball with incredible ease. In a word, he was born to be a goalkeeper."
In Benfica he took advantage of the opportunity he got two year ago, when the goalkeeper Artur Moraes got injured. He celebrated the first Triple Crown in the history of the Portuguese football with the eagles; he won the national championship, the cup championship and the league cup championship, and also played in the finals of the European league, which however his team lost by Sevilla on penalties. His half-year transfer to Atletico for EUR 16 million came next, and all the rest is recent history.
"I have always admired him for his dedication and hard work, and especially for the manner in which he secured his place in the team. Miguel Angel Moya was a good goalkeeper, but Oblak kept working hard and waited for his chance. And hard work is usually rewarded. We were very impressed with him. He is facing a brilliant future," the coach Diego Simeone said for the UEFA website on Tuesday. The president of Atletico Enrique Cerezo only added: "I consider him if not the best goalkeeper in the world than at least the second best. He has been proving it during the entire season."
On May 28 in Milano he could become the first Slovenian football player with the title of the best of Europe. And it would happen in the courtyard of Samir Handanović's, who is an Atletico Madrid fan.
Matej Rijavec, translated by G. K.
