Goalscorer supreme Bican passes away
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Article summary
Striker Josef Bican, who scored a league career total of 643 goals in Austria and Czechoslovakia, died on Wednesday aged 88.
Article body
Striker Josef Bican, who scored a league career total of 643 goals in Austria and Czechoslovakia in the period before and after World War Two, died on Wednesday at the age of 88 after his second heart attack in a week.
World Cup appearance
Bican, a prolific centre-forward who scored 196 goals for SK Rapid Wien and FK Austria Wien before moving to the then-Czechoslovakia, was a member of Hugo Meisl's Austrian ‘Wunderteam’ that reached the FIFA World Cup finals in 1934.
Outstanding record
He later moved to SK Slavia Praha and was top scorer in the Czechoslovakian League ten times in 13 seasons between 1938 and 1950, including seven successive seasons between 1940 and 1947.
Top scorer
He was also the league's top scorer after he moved from Slavia to VZKG Vitkovice in 1949. In all he scored 447 goals in Czechoslovakia.