Berger wants to return home February 25 2008
Patrik Berger has confirmed his desire to return to his homeland with Slavia Prague in the summer.
The Aston Villa midfielder has not started a game under manager Martin O'Neill this season and has only managed four appearances as a substitute in the Premier League.
Former club Portsmouth were keen to bring the 34-year-old back to Fratton Park last month, but O'Neill discarded the notion of Berger leaving Villa Park at the time.
Now the former Czech Republic international has revealed that close friend Vladimir Smicer has convinced him to rejoin him at Slavia, where they played together before moving on to Liverpool.
"Officially I have not discussed it with anyone but Smica (Smicer) has been persuading me to return and I am already affected by it. I want to return home," Berger told Hat-trick.
Berger, who will be a free agent when his contact at Villa expires at the end of the current campaign, admits a major factor behind his decision is that the Czech giants will be moving to a new stadium later this year.
"I am allured to the idea of playing alongside Smica at the new Slavia stadium and I know the coach (Karel) Jarolim, I even played with him in a team," he said.
"But mainly because of my family I would like to settle down finally so that our children did not have to travel about the world."
Slavia have confirmed that Berger is a target and that they are looking at Smicer to seal the deal for them.
"We have discussed it with Patrik's agent Pavel Paska but we rather leave it to Vlada Smicer," the club's general director Petr Dolezal said.