David Zima leaving for FC Torino
David Zima joined Slavia in January 2020 from Sigma Olomouc with only two caps in the Czech first division. He quickly started to make more top-flight caps in red and white, on the beginning as defensive midfielder replacing Tomáš Souček who had left for West Ham. Later he moved to his usual position as centre-back.
During the first half-a-season, Zima made 12 starts for Slavia in which the team kept 8 clean sheets. In the Champion’s Group he also scored his first and only goal during the 3-1 win against Baník Ostrava.
At the end of the season, Zima could celebrate Slavia’s 20th Czech title, only a day later he successfully passed his school-leaving exam.
In the 2020/21 season David Zima was starting regularly as centre-back side by side with Ondřej Kúdela not only in the Czech league, but also in European competitions. He missed only 3 out of 14 Slavia games in the Champions League play-off and Europa League and became one of the key players for reaching the quarter-finals of the UEL. He started to 21 games during the 2020/21 season and became champion of both Czech league and Czech MOL Cup.
During autumn 2020 he received his first call-up to the Czech national team. He made his debut in March 2021 in the World Cup qualifier against Estonia. Zima was also member of Czech squad for the EURO 2020, however, he did not start to any of the games.
FC Torino finished 17th in the last season of Italian Serie A and narrowly avoided relegation. This year “il Toro” lost both their top-flight games 1-2 to Fiorentina and Atalanta.
Torino usually play with three centre-backs. Their biggest star is forward and captain Andrea Belotti, EURO 2020 champion with Italy.
