Jaromír Blažek

Jaromír Blažek
Personal information
Full name Jaromír Blažek
Date of birth (1972-12-29) 29 December 1972
Place of birth Brno, Czechoslovakia
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 FC Vysočina Jihlava
Number 29
Youth career
1980–1982 Metra Blansko
1982–1990 Slavia Prague
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1992 Slavia Prague 9 (0)
1992–1993 Dynamo České Budějovice 29 (0)
1993–1994 Viktoria Žižkov 24 (0)
1994–2000 Bohemians Prague 117 (0)
1995–1996 → Slavia Prague (loan) 7 (0)
2000–2007 AC Sparta Prague 167 (0)
2001–2002 → FK Marila Příbram (loan) 22 (0)
2007–2008 1. FC Nürnberg 25 (0)
2008–2012 AC Sparta Prague 74 (0)
2012– FC Vysočina Jihlava 59 (0)
National team‡
1993 Czech Republic U-21 3 (0)
2000–2008 Czech Republic 14 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 June 2014.

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 25 March 2011

Jaromír Blažek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjaromiːr ˈblaʒɛk]) (born 29 December 1972) is a Czech football goalkeeper who currently plays for FC Vysočina Jihlava.

Club career

Born in Brno, Blažek started his career in Slavia Prague, where he got to play his first league games. After two years during which he was mainly used as a substitute, he moved to Dynamo České Budějovice to become the number one goalkeeper there. This season (1992–93) was to be the last of the Czechoslovak First League, and he decided to spend his first season in the new Gambrinus liga in Viktoria Žižkov, which turned out to be a good choice since he won his first title, the national cup. He left after only one year though, returning to Prague, this time to FC Bohemians. They were relegated that year and Blažek, who didn't want to spend a year in Druhá liga, was loaned for one year to his first club Slavia, where again he was but a substitute. Since Bohemians regained promotion the same year, he returned there and stayed for three and a half years.

However, if his club wasn't performing very well, it wasn't the case for Blažek, who drew the attention of giants Sparta Prague, transferring there in early 2000 and winning back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. He went on loan to rivals Marila Příbram in 2001 but returned after one year. After that, he played almost every single game for Sparta Prague, be it league, cup or Champions League games. It was a very successful period for Blažek as he won four more titles and three national cups.

In 2007, he decided to try a first experience abroad and was sold to German club 1. FC Nürnberg, who purchased him as a replacement for Raphael Schäfer who had left for VfB Stuttgart over the summer. Blažek was the number one there but fell sick in April and could not play the end of a season that saw Nürnberg being relegated. In June, it was announced that Blažek was returning to Sparta Prague for the following season.[1] However, on 16 December 2011, Sparta Prague announced their decision to terminate Blažek's contract early, releasing him as a free agent. This was confirmed by the player's agent Pavel Paska.[2]

On 22 February 2014 in a league match for Jihlava against Znojmo, Blažek kept his 139th clean sheet, setting a new goalkeeper record for the Czech league.[3]

International career

Blažek made his debut for the national team on 29 March 2000 in a friendly against Australia that ended up in a 3–1 win. He was however never able to be but the number two behind Petr Čech. He was part of the Czech roster at both Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, but only played in one match during the two tournaments combined. He was also on the Czech roster for the 2006 World Cup.

Personal life

He is married and has two children – Jakub and Aneta. Blažek is the cousin of tennis player Radek Štěpánek.[4]

Honours

Viktoria Žižkov
Slavia Prague
Sparta Prague

References

  1. ↑ "Blažek wieder ein Spartaner" (in German). 1. FC Nürnberg. 17 June 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  2. ↑ "Blažek ve Spartě skončil" (in Czech). iDNES. 16 December 2011.
  3. ↑ Folk, Čestmír (23 February 2014). "Hrubý zachránil Znojmu bod, Blažek vychytal 139. nulu". Sport.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  4. ↑ Macek, Tomáš (28 June 2006). "Štěpánek díky fotbalistům vyhrál večeři". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Czech Republic. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
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