Alois Grussmann (born 6 September 1964) is a Czech football manager and former player, who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He played in the

Czechoslovak First League The Czechoslovak First League ( cs, 1. fotbalová liga, sk, 1. futbalová liga) was the premier football league in the Czechoslovakia from 1925 to 1993, with the exception of World War II. Czechoslovakia was occupied by German forces who forme ...

with

Baník Ostrava ''Baník'' is a Slovak word meaning "miner". Since the 1950s it has been part of the name of various sports clubs in Czechoslovakia associated mostly with coal mining regions. In Poland, the same practice was conducted with the name ''górnik''. ...

and Vítkovice between 1984 and 1991, before spending a season in Spain with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

. Following his return to his homeland, Grussmann played mainly for

Opava Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a historical capital of ...

, where he played five seasons in the

Czech First League The Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, is a Czech professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Czech football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Seasons typically r ...

. Grussmann represented

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

internationally, winning six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and scoring one goal between 1988 and 1991.

Club career

Grussmann started to play his club football in Czechoslovakia for

. In 1986, he joined Vítkovice, with whom he stayed for five seasons, playing 148

matches and scoring 30 goals. During this time he played in the European Cup and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. In 1991 Grussmann moved to Spain to play for

, where he joined compatriot players

Michal Bílek Michal Bílek (born 13 April 1965) is a football manager and former player. He led the Czech Republic national football team for four years between 2009 and 2013. As a player, he represented Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic at internationa ...

and Roman Kukleta. He scored eight goals in 38 league appearances for the Spanish side. Grussmann later returned to his homeland, playing briefly for his former clubs Baník Ostrava and Vítkovice as well as Sigma Olomouc in the final season of the Czechoslovak First League. Following the establishment of the

, Grussmann played there for five seasons, all for

, with his best goal return occurring in the 1996–97 season when he scored 13 times. Grussmann finished his career with 304 appearances and 68 goals from top-league Czechoslovak and Czech football. He later played in the second league for

Třinec Třinec (; pl, Trzyniec ; german: Trzynietz) is a city in Frýdek-Místek District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants and is the least populated statutory city in the country. The city is a ...

International career

Having played for his nation's junior national teams, Grussmann made his debut for the full national side in April 1988 in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He scored his only senior international goal in a 2–0 friendly win against Australia in February 1991. Grussmann took part in three

UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 1992 was a series of parallel association football competitions to be held over 1990 and 1991 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 1992, to be held in Sweden. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held ...

matches in 1991, after which he did not represent his country again.

Management career

Grussmann led Jakubčovice until November 2006. He was named as Vítkovice's manager in December 2006. He remained at the club until August 2008, when he left his position following four successive losses at the beginning of the 2008–09 season.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grussmann, Alois 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Opava Czech footballers Czechoslovak footballers Czechoslovakia men's international footballers Czech football managers Czech First League players FC Baník Ostrava players MFK Vítkovice players SK Sigma Olomouc players SFC Opava players FK Třinec players Czechoslovak expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Segunda División players Real Betis players Men's association football forwards