Václav Daněk

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Václav Daněk
Personal information
Date of birth	December 22, 1960 (1960-12-22) (age 47)
Place of birth	Ostrava, Czechoslovakia
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1979-1983 1983-1985 1985-1989 1989-1991 1991-1992 1992-1995	Baník Ostrava Dukla Prague Baník Ostrava FC Swarovski Tirol Le Havre AC FC Tirol Innsbruck	104 (34) 41 (12) 96 (65) 57 (44) 17 (3) 89 (39)
National team
1982-1991	Czechoslovakia	22 (9)
Teams managed
2003 2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2007-	FK Drnovice FC Vítkovice Dukla Banská Bystrica FC Vítkovice Fotbal Fulnek
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Václav Daněk (born 22 December 1960 in Ostrava), is a retired Czech football player. He played 22 matches for Czechoslovakia and scored 9 goals.

In his country he played for Baník Ostrava. He is considered to be one of the Moravian prides in football. His strong temper made him not to be picked for the Czechoslovakian roster that made to quarterfinals in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, when he was a the peak of his career in Austria, playing for FC Tirol Innsbruck because of discrepancies with coach Jozef Vengloš who preferred players like Tomáš Skuhravý, Ivo Knoflíček and Stanislav Griga.

Despite all these, he was selected Best Player in the Austrian league and finished top scorer three years in a row which allowed him to finish third in 1991´s European Golden Boot contest sponsored by the French football magazine "France Football".

After the World Cup in Italy, where the Czechoslovakian team amazingly performed very well, Venglos was replaced by Milan Máčala who gave Vaclav full confidence, making him the team's new standard bearer and first pick-up choice for the offensive.

Maybe his best achievement with the Czechoslovakian national team took place during the UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying match against Spain in 1991. A few days prior to this crucial match Danek's baby son was badly injured in an accident and had to be hospitalized what made Václav to declare himself forfait for this match.

The following days, all other three Czech strikers were injured during trainings or in their league matches, what left Macala completely forward-less. The coach decided to call Daněk just hours before the match, and he received a "YES" as an answer.

Without any previous training and/or tactical coaching advises, Vaclav played the game. With Spain leading 2-1, he scored twice in the second half against Andoni Zubizarreta and was the Man of the Match of an amazing comeback and victory of his nation.

When asked why he did finally play the game, although his son being at the hospital he declared " My country and my coach needed me and here I am". This match gave him the rank of "Moravian Hero", that is still considered as.