Jaromír Blažek
Jaromír Blažek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjaromiːr ˈblaʒɛk]) (born 29 December 1972 in Brno) is a Czech football goalkeeper who currently plays for Sparta Prague in the Gambrinus liga. He is married with two children – Jakub and Aneta.
Club career
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 in 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 didn't want to spend a year in Druhá liga, was loaned for one year to his first club Slavia, 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, even though Bohemians were fighting to avoid relegation more often than not.
However, if his club wasn't performing very well, it wasn't the case for Blažek, who drew the attention of giants Sparta Prague, transferred there in early 2000 and won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. He was surprisingly sold to rivals Marila Příbram in 2001 but returned after only 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 Nuremberg, 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 unfortunately fell sick in April and could not play the end of a season that saw Nuremberg 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]
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.
Honours
References
External links
| Persondata |
| Name |
Blažek, Jaromír |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
Footballer |
| Date of birth |
29 December 1972 |
| Place of birth |
Brno, Czechoslovakia |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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