The next player that caught my eye at the U21 Euro’s was the young Slovak CB, Jakub Jakubko. The 20 year old defender who plays for FC Košice in the Slovak top flight is almost certainly a relative unknown for the football world. At this tournament, he partnered the more established Adam Obert in defence, and never looked out of place. Obert, for comparison, has already played 77 matches for Cagliari in Serie A, and has registered 12 caps for the Slovak senior team. As Obert was the more ball playing CB, Jakubko played a defensive cover role very effectively.

The first thing I noticed about Jakub Jakubko was his mentality. He is as determined of a player as you’ll ever see, with the bravery required to make crucial blocks and tackles. While he was not yet leading and commanding the backline (naturally, due to Obert’s seniority), he will still be eligible for the next U21 Euro tournament in 2027, where he will be the most experienced CB on the squad and given a leadership role.

Physically, Jakubko is as ready to play at the top level as any 20 year old CB you might see. Some physical development will come with time, but he already exhibits very good pace and stamina. While not losing duels at this tournament on strength, that could be a development curve if he were to play in a top 5 league right now. However, with his pace and positioning sense, Jakubko often puts himself in place to make a defensive play before the need for a physical duel is necessary.

In this match against Spain, the Slovak defence was put under heavy pressure for the majority of the match. Jakubko showed impressive concentration throughout the match, and made many important blocks. He rarely put himself in position to concede a penalty, being very smart with his physical challenges inside his own box.

The area most requiring development (if it was required for the system he is playing in), is his on-ball play. Comfortable making short to medium range passes, you could not call him a ball playing CB at the moment. Not all systems require ball playing CB’s, and so this is more a hurdle if Jakubko is to play for a top team in Europe.

Overall, I think that Jakubko could be playing for a mid to low table Serie A club within the next year. There has been a successful path to the Italian leagues for promising Slovak players. Milan Skriniar, Tomas Suslov, Ondrej Duda, Stanislav Lobotka, the aforementioned Obert, and of course, Marek Hamsik are all examples of Slovak national team players who came through Italy in their club careers. Clubs like Cagliari will look at Obert’s success at that level and have (hopefully) seen that Jakubko made a very solid CB partner for him at this tournament. Barring significant technical development on the ball, I think Jakubko may not play for Inter Milan and PSG like Milan Skriniar did, but he absolutely has a very strong chance to be a good Top 5 leagues player and Slovak senior team starter.

Jakub Jakubko, one to watch.