“Tonko, don’t worry, you’ll be a great goalkeeper... and he was right.”
Former Czechoslovak football player and representative, Anton Švajlen, was born on December 3, 1937 in picturesque Solčany. He comes from six children, of which he was the eldest. Unfortunately, one of his sisters died at a tender age, at the age of six, from a very insidious disease. Anton and his siblings were raised by his father, Anton and his mother Anastázia, Mináriková, when she was single. The men from his family were mostly engaged in crafts, especially masonry, and the women were at home or took care of the children. In 1944, Tonko entered the local elementary folk school, which he attended until the fifth grade. Anton started actively playing football in the fifth grade. The year was 1946, and despite his younger age, he was already playing for the town team. Anton grew up slowly, and the middle schooler was replaced by high school. He became a student of the high school of mechanical engineering in nearby Topoľčany. At that time, Anton was playing in the second league, for this very city, which became his second home. In 1957, Anton could not avoid compulsory military service, on the basis of which he enlisted in Dukla Trenčín. Anton played one year in Trenčín and spent the second year in Brezno, still in the second league. During his military service, he only played football, he did not complete any other classic military training as an athlete. In 1959, he transferred to the football club Lokomotíva Košice, where he worked as a goalkeeper until 1975. He thus became part of the first league. Since the official job of “athlete” did not exist during the then regime, Anton was led as a technical inspector in the municipal services. Likewise, while working in Košice, he did not lag behind in his studies and devoted himself remotely to the engineering industry. He became part of the national team as a teenager. Later, he was also selected for Slovakia’s juniors. He thus completed a number of matches abroad, the first of which took place in Poland. Participation in the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, in 1964, is certainly considered a significant point in his career. As a goalkeeper, he participated in the preparatory matches in South America and also in all the matches in the basic group. He did not catch the following matches. He met his future wife Helena during a party in Brezno, where he was serving as a soldier at the time. Over time, their family grew to include two sons, Ľubomír and Anton, and one daughter, Helenka. In 1975, Anton ended his active sports activities, left the football club VSS Košice and decided to study at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in Košice, majoring in football. He started working in Brezno and later also in Humenné. He worked as a coach until 1980. He ended up in the Košice club. During the nineties, Anton worked in the Olympic committee, where he was in charge of Olympic clubs, that is, their establishment throughout Slovakia. He worked there for over 20 years. Currently, Anton hates football and rarely attends football matches. As a pensioner, he spends a lot of time mainly at home, in the circle of his closest relatives.