Nedved nets another award
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
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Pavel Nedved has been voted Czech Player of the Year while national coach Karel Brückner was Coach of the Year.
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Departure for Palermo
The 31-year-old Nedved, selected as European Footballer of the Year in December and a member of uefa.com users' 2003 Team of the Year, received the award at a ceremony yesterday evening before the national squad departed for Palermo for their friendly against fellow UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifiers Italy. "I would throw all these awards into a bag and exchange them for the [UEFA] European Championship title this year in Portugal," he said.
Koller second
The Juventus FC midfield player, who helped his club win Serie A and reach the UEFA Champions League final, also claimed this prize in 1998 and 2000. On this occasion he won the overwhelming majority of the votes from 402 players and coaches from leading Czech teams, beating Jan Koller of BV Borussia Dortmund and AC Sparta Praha captain Karel Poborský into second and third place. Last year's winner, Dortmund's Tomáš Rosický, finished sixth.
Other awards
Meanwhile, Brückner took the coaching award for the third successive year, reward for guiding the national team on a 19-match unbeaten streak, while Under-21 goalkeeper Jan Lastuvka from FC Baník Ostrava was named Young Player of the Year. Poborský was honoured as Czech League Personality of the Year.
