Judging by your Instagram, it's fishing, padel, golf, Liverpool and travel. You look like a textbook example of how to enjoy life after football!
"When I finished playing, I told myself I'd spend two years travelling and enjoying myself, because during your career there isn't much time for that. The summer holidays weren't long, and you spend them with your family. So I said two years, and it turned into 15, which I never expected."
Is that still the case?
"For the last year and a half, there's been less time for hobbies, because I set up a football agency with my son. After 15 years, I came back into football, and I have to say I enjoy it. When I go away for three or four days, I'm already restless and want to be back.
"I still play golf now and then, and padel only takes an hour and a half, so I play that often. But I like going to matches and seeing the guys I used to play with. Many of them are coaches or sporting directors now, so it's really nice to be back on the football merry-go-round."
Is this how you imagined life after football?
"I ended my career because my health wouldn't let me carry on. Eight operations on my right knee had taken their toll, and there was no other option. I definitely wanted to keep going, but my body wouldn't allow it. I was looking forward to travelling and playing golf, but I never imagined it would last this long.
"It was a wonderful time. We travelled with the kids and my wife, and with Vladimir Smicer, I went all over the football world and the golf world. I also got into fly fishing, which I'd never done before. It took me all the way to the Amazon in Brazil and Bolivia, where I fished with indigenous tribes. I have wonderful memories of it."
You announced your retirement in January 2010. Were you relieved, or did it hurt?
"I remember it exactly. We were at our cottage in the mountains over Christmas and New Year, and I was planning to go back for pre-season as normal. I'd missed the whole autumn after another knee operation. Over the holidays I talked it through with my wife and kids.
"The knee was fixed, good enough to play sport and enjoy it, but I didn't fancy going back to a January pre-season that I knew would be hard labour, followed by away games at small Czech clubs. I asked myself whether it was even worth it. I weighed up the pros and cons, and the most sensible thing was to stop and start enjoying life."
Do you still feel those eight operations in everyday life?
"I'm probably one of the few people who is fine after that many operations. I can do absolutely everything. The knee doesn't swell, it doesn't hurt. I think that's because, from my very first operation, I was able to fly to the best surgeon in the world, Dr Steadman in America.
"My agent at the time arranged everything, and I did my rehab in Germany. After that, I flew to Dr Steadman for every operation except one, which was in England. And 50% of the success, maybe more, is the rehab. I always did that with professionals. To this day, whatever sport I play, I don't feel the knee at all."
Many players say retiring feels like a soldier coming home from war - they miss the structure and feel empty. Did you?
"No, not at all. I think it's really important for athletes to have a plan for when they finish. We were used to having the whole day mapped out: training, lunch, travel, matches. When an athlete retires, he wakes up, and there's none of that.
"But from the very first moment, I started doing things I enjoyed. Smicer retired a few months before me, so we played golf together and travelled the world to play. It felt a bit strange at first, of course, but it didn't bother me at all."
Your Instagram suggests you're never in a bad mood...
"I'm a positive person. I don't look back; I try to look forward and enjoy life. I worked out fairly early that it's not good to spend time with people who drain you, so I surround myself only with people I like, people I feel good with and laugh with. I don't like being angry. I try to block it out."
'Kids should enjoy football'
How much football do you watch these days?
"A lot, because going to matches is part of the agency work. I'm at a game three or four days a week, including youth football. On TV, it's mainly the Premier League and the Champions League. There's so much football you could watch from Monday to Sunday, so I pick. Liverpool, of course, whenever I can. I like Barcelona, and I like the way PSG play."
Spain dominate international football and PSG rule at club level. Do you like where the game is heading?
"I like it, because they play football. With those players, it doesn't matter whether they're tall or short. Look at PSG: both central midfielders are tiny. At Barcelona it was Iniesta and Xavi, tiny footballers, and now there's Pedri, who isn't tall either, and Gavi. They all simply know how to play.
"Playing simple football is actually the hardest thing, and that's the beauty of it. These players are technically incredible and so confident in their positions that they dare to ask for the ball in difficult situations. It looks really easy, but because I played, I know how hard it is. And they do it at a high tempo, every four days."
Is height still too big a factor in youth football?
"That's how I see it where I am. Many times I've said, 'Look at that little one, he's talented', and about 80% of the people around me replied, 'Yeah, but he's small, he hasn't got the build'.
"Smaller kids may mature a bit later physically, but their football IQ is more developed. They have to be smarter and think faster to avoid physical duels, so they have completely different strengths. But the push is mainly for players to be tall and strong and run 12 kilometres a game."
What should coaches be doing instead?
"When they're teaching 14-year-olds build-up play, pressing and counter-pressing, I don't think that's the right way. At that age, kids should enjoy football, have a smile on their face and work on the basics: first touch, ball control, one-on-ones, beating a man, shooting.
"Then at 18 or 19 they take their second touch with their head up and, if they're wingers, they dare to take a defender on. And if they mess it up, it doesn't matter. Let them try a second time, a third time, and the fourth time it comes off.
"Lamine Yamal doesn't beat his man every time either, but he tries it eight times in a half, and twice it ends in a goal or a big chance. And nobody has a go at him for trying. In youth football, I often see a kid try it, someone yells at him from the bench, and he doesn't dare do it again. The coach should say: 'Never mind, try again, it'll come off'. I don't hear that very often."
The Czech Republic reached the World Cup through the play-offs. How do you see the national team now?
"Not great, to be honest. I don't think we even deserved to be at the World Cup. I was at both play-off matches, and I think we got through both games with huge luck. But that doesn't matter; we qualified, and then we went up in flames there. It was unwatchable.
"Now everything seems to have changed, and it all looks rosy, but we lost all the games we've played recently too. We scored one goal and conceded 12, or something like that; I don't know the exact numbers. So I wouldn't be that optimistic.
"We've read that the mood is better, that the coach is more human, that the players have better training sessions, that suddenly everyone is really happy. That's probably important, because everything starts with a good atmosphere. But I don't want to judge it at all; we had tough opponents. Let's wait for the matches against teams we should be beating."
Pavel Nedved now works with the national team, and Vladimir Smicer and Karel Poborsky have also held roles at the Czech FA. Have you ever considered coming back in that kind of role?
"No. If I got an offer like that, I'd have to be 100% sure I had a free hand and could do it my way. Going in with people telling me how things should be done, 'don't say that, that's not good', would make no sense to me at all. I'd only accept it after someone sat down with me and I explained what I think should change. If they said, 'Sure, no problem, you're in', and I really had a free hand, I'd be interested. But if after two weeks or a month people started telling me, 'Listen, you can't say that, it can't be done that way', I'd walk away."
Has anyone ever approached you?
"No, no."
The 'amazing' Liverpool family
You recently went back to Anfield with Milan Baros and Vladimir Smicer as part of the Czech Canal+Sport broadcast team. Watching your pre-match chat with Steve McManaman, it looked like you've never lost touch...
"We have a WhatsApp group of former Liverpool players. What's amazing is that once you play for Liverpool, not for one year, but if you're there a bit longer and have a good relationship with the fans, you become part of the Liverpool family.
"I never played with Ian Rush or John Aldridge, for example. But when we first met at an event or a legends match, it felt like I'd known them for 20 years, which is absolutely incredible. There are three generations of footballers in that group, most of whom never played together, and it's as if we'd known each other since we were kids."
What do you talk about?
"You're probably in plenty of groups too, so you can imagine what gets posted. Sometimes it's dead, then someone posts something, and it livens up again. When we have events, everything gets sorted there. This time in Liverpool I saw Jason McAteer, Steve McManaman and Florent Sinama-Pongolle, who I never played with but who now works for a French channel.
"There was also Phil Thompson, a huge Liverpool legend who works for LFCTV and was assistant manager at the club. When you go there, you always know you'll bump into someone, find out how they're doing, how the family is, and of course talk football. I try to get to Liverpool at least two or three times a season."
You also played padel with Steven Gerrard, didn't you?
"That was arranged in advance. Since he retired, Stevie has taken up padel too. We'd agreed that when we came to Liverpool we'd set up a match, and we had the whole of Sunday morning free. So I messaged him to ask if he fancied a game, and it was brilliant."
Did you thrash them?
"Stevie plays well. I'd never seen him play before, but you can tell he has a tennis background. He has the feel for it; he's still young, quick and awkward to play against. He brought a friend who probably wasn't quite at that level, so it was a bit easier for us. But we had a lovely game, chatted afterwards and had a coffee. For such a global megastar, Steve is a completely normal guy."
You rarely give interviews. Why?
"It was already like that when I was playing. In England, journalists had to go through the club. The press officer would tell you some media wanted to talk to you, and if you didn't want to, the club said no, and the journalists were fine with that.
"Back home, all the journalists had our phone numbers and would just call. Two or three times I couldn't talk because I had something on with the kids or I was going somewhere, and I came out of it looking bad. Words got changed, too, and I had no control over what ended up in the papers.
"So I decided that if I didn't have to talk to journalists, I wouldn't. Not all of them were like that; there were some excellent guys. But I didn't fully trust them."
You say talking about football is the easiest job in the world, yet you've never become a TV pundit. Why not?
"I'll be honest. Abroad, it's treated as a job. Studios there want the biggest stars who played the game, because they know people will listen to someone who played at the highest level, and they pay them accordingly. At home, the way I see it, players are expected to be glad to be invited at all, as if it's publicity for them. I played at a certain level and achieved something, and if they want my opinion, I should be paid accordingly. That's not the case in the studios people go to here."
'I felt like I was made of porcelain'
Last year you and your son founded the Patrik Berger Football Agency. Why?
"My son had worked for seven or eight years for Pavel Paska, who was also my agent. When Mr Paska decided to sell his agency, Patrik didn't want to stay. So I said: 'Look, let's set up our own agency; we have something of a name, after all'.
"We just needed him to get his FIFA licence, which isn't easy at all. It's something like a thousand pages, and if you fail, you wait a year to sit it again. He passed, which was great, and from that moment we got going. At first I just wanted to help him and open doors, but it got hold of me, and now I think about it every day."
What can you offer young players?
"I went through everything in my career. I was at the top and at the bottom; I had injuries, there were times when I was in incredible form and times when nothing worked. Everyone goes through it. Maybe only Messi has had a career where he's always been good. I've been in every one of those situations, so I know how to advise them."
Your agency's Instagram shows your son next to Patrik Schick when he extended his contract at Leverkusen. But Schick is with a German agency, isn't he?
"We worked with that German agency, and we still do. We were one of the parties in the process, which is why my son was there when the extension was signed."
When were you at your best as a player?
"At Liverpool. That's where I was at my peak. After my first operation, I went to Dortmund, and I think I played well there too, but I only stayed a year because Liverpool bought me. Then, towards the end of my time at Liverpool, when the knee went for the second time, I was never the same. Almost every year something small happened to it, and I was out for a while.
"I've worked it out: because of that knee, I lost almost three years of my career."
That's pretty crazy when you think about it...
"Three years I spent in the gym. Then you have to do the running and build up your fitness. But I was physically resilient; coming back eight times isn't easy, and I always wanted to get back into the best league in the world. That was my motivation.
"But it wasn't the same. If I felt a twinge in a muscle, I'd put it down to my body not being what it was. Maybe you even hold back a little without realising it. I felt like I was made of porcelain: I'd start sprinting, feel a twinge somewhere, and it just wasn't the same anymore."
In 1996 you and Karel Poborsky shared the Czech Footballer of the Year award, the only tie in its history. What was that like?
"Of course it's strange, I don't think it has happened anywhere else. I have no idea what was behind it, who was pulling the strings or whether it really was a tie. Probably only a select few know. But Karel was an incredible footballer. He was at Manchester United, he had a good season, and he was outstanding for the national team, so I had no problem sharing the trophy with him then, and I don't now. It's an anomaly that will probably never happen again."
Can you do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke?
This September marked 30 years since your Premier League debut. Did you celebrate?
"Time flies so fast, it's terrible. It usually pops up on Twitter or Instagram, where someone tags me, whether it's a Liverpool supporters' club in Spain, Indonesia or Malaysia. I'm not the type to look back, but I'm always amazed how quickly the years go. When we were at Anfield recently, we said it's unbelievable how quickly it's gone."
One part of your career many people forget was your seven Championship games on loan at Stoke City in 2006/07. How did that happen?
"I was at Aston Villa and Martin O'Neill was the manager. I honestly can't remember what happened between us, but he left me out of the squad. Then Tony Pulis got in touch. He asked whether I was happy just training, or whether I'd like to come and play a few games for them, even though it was only the Championship. I didn't live far away; it's close to Birmingham. And I said: 'Yeah, why not'. I didn't enjoy just training.
"He was excellent, a great coach, although the conditions were completely different from Villa. Then Villa recalled me because we were in the relegation zone. The manager and I sorted things out; I helped them stay up, and everything was rosy again."
Andy Gray famously wondered whether Lionel Messi could do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke. Was it the toughest place you played in England?
"The wind there was terrible; it was the worst weather imaginable: cold, rain and wind. It got under your skin. It felt like minus 10 when it was maybe four or five degrees. Such miserable weather that you don't even want to train or go outside. Compared to that, the weather in Liverpool was golden, even though it's not far away.
"And the Championship: you could hardly call it football. It was a battle, duels, long balls, that classic British football. So it wasn't really my cup of tea, to be honest."
You're about to become a grandfather. How excited are you?
"Very, very excited. I love children, and when my daughter told us she was having a baby, and we'd be grandma and grandpa, I had tears in my eyes. The baby is due in mid-January, so I can't wait."
So in May you could be at the Anfield title celebrations with your grandchild!
"I'd love that, but when I see how things look at Liverpool right now, I think we'll be happy with a top-four finish."
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