Winter boost for Czech exports
Monday, February 4, 2008
Article summary
After an exodus of players to foreign climes during the winter break, the Czech Republic are eyeing up new horizons as they prepare to take on Poland in Cyprus.
Article body
Foreign moves
With the Czechs gearing up to appear at the finals of UEFA EURO 2008™, they headed to Cyprus with the highlight of their trip being a friendly against fellow finals contenders Poland in Larnaca on 6 February. Having benefitted over the years from their top players competing in the best leagues in Europe, the Czechs will be hoping that more of their players can reap the rewards from foreign moves.
'A dream of mine'
The most dramatic January move was Martin Fenin's €4m switch from FK Teplice to Eintracht Frankfurt. The 20-year-old forward, who scored seven league goals in the autumn, is regarded as the most promising of the current crop of Czech youngsters, helping the national team reach the final at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada. "Playing in the Bundesliga has always been a dream of mine," he said.
Slavia sales
Czech league leaders and UEFA Cup hopefuls SK Slavia Praha will also be doing without two of their top talents in the spring, with seven-goal striker Stanislav Vlček, 30, joining RSC Anderlecht and U21 international defender Michal Švec agreeing a four-and-half-year deal at SC Heerenveen. AC Sparta Praha, meanwhile, have lost defender Zdeněk Pospěch to FC København while striker Libor Došek is out of action after knee surgery.
Matějovský move
Elsewhere, midfielder Marek Matějovský left FK Mladá Boleslav for English side Reading FC while FK Viktoria Plzeň loaned goalkeeper Michal Daněk, a squad regular with the national team, to West Bromwich Albion FC. Daněk's Plzeň team-mate Martin Fillo, meanwhile, is off to Norway's Viking FK while 21-year-old Mario Holek left 1. FC Brno for FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and promptly found himself receiving a first call-up to teh senior national team.
Cautionary tales
However, January brought cautionary tales for those moving abroad, with midfielder Tomáš Sivok returning to Sparta after one lacklustre year at Udinese Calcio. Former league top scorer Tomáš Jun returned to Teplice on loan after failing to settle at Trabzonspor while another striker, David Střihavka, is back at Slavia having had a fruitless spell at English side Norwich City FC.