Jaromír Blažek

Jaromír Blažek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjaromiːr ˈblaʒɛk]; born 29 December 1972) is a Czech former professional football goalkeeper.

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(s) Goalkeeper
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 Sparta Prague 167 (0)
2001–2002 → Marila Příbram (loan) 22 (0)
2007–2008 1. FC Nürnberg 25 (0)
2008–2012 Sparta Prague 74 (0)
2012–2015 Vysočina Jihlava 59 (0)
Total 533 (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

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 with 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 did not want to spend a year in the Druhá liga, was loaned for one year to his first club Slavia Prague, 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, while his club was not performing very well, Blažek 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

Club

Viktoria Žižkov

Slavia Prague

Bohemians 1905

  • Czech Second League: 3rd Place 1997–98
  • Czech Second League: 1998–99

Sparta Prague

Vysočina Jihlava

  • Czech Second League: Runner-up 2011–12

International

Czech Republic

Individual

Records
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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.
  5. "Blažek počtvrté mezi hvězdami". isport.cz (in Czech). 2 June 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  6. "Tyhle ceny by už snad měli sbírat mladší kluci, říká nejlepší gólman Gambrinus ligy Blažek". sport.cz (in Czech). 4 June 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  7. "Hráč a trenér měsíce". epojisteniliga.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  8. "Nejlepším fotbalistou v historii české ligy zvolili čtenáři Nedvěda". idnes.cz (in Czech). 3 June 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  9. "Blažek lámal rekordy! Stal se nejstarším hráčem ligové historie a připsal si další nulu". epojisteniliga.cz (in Czech). 21 February 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  10. "Jaromír Blažek". epojisteniliga.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  11. "Rekordy". epojisteniliga.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 14 March 2017.
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