Jan Rajnoch (born 30 September 1981) is a Czech former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or defensive midfielder.

Club career

Rajnoch's career started at AC Sparta Prague's youth academy, playing with prominent Czech talents

Tomáš Hübschman Tomáš Hübschman (; born 4 September 1981) is a Czech professional footballer who plays for FK Jablonec. He can play as a centre-back or defensive midfielder and is known for his strength, speed and tight marking. Club career Sparta Prague B ...

and Tomáš Jun. However, he never made an appearance for the senior team. After spells at Bohemians Praha and 1. FC Slovácko he joined Czech

Gambrinus liga 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 ru ...

outfit

FK Mladá Boleslav FK Mladá Boleslav is a Czech football club based in the city of Mladá Boleslav . The club currently plays in the Czech First League. Mladá Boleslav were runners up in the 2005–06 Czech First League and went on to play in the 2006–07 UEFA ...

in September 2006. Here he quickly established himself as a key player and became an integral part of the team, playing an important role in their

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 Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

campaign wins against

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club pl ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. In the 2007–08 season, he was made captain.

Switch to Germany

On 7 January 2009, Rajnoch made a loan move to German side

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons in ...

where he played out the rest of the season making 10 appearances in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. However Cottbus could not avoid relegation and Rajnoch returned to Boleslav.

Turkey

Rajnoch moved to Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

outfit MKE Ankaragücü in 2010 on a three and a half year contract. He scored an own goal against Galatasaray on 2 October 2011 which became Galatasaray's 3000th goal in league history.

International career

Rajnoch played for the Czech Republic national team. He made his international debut on 20 August 2008 in a friendly against England at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

where he came on as a substitute for

Radoslav Kováč Radoslav Kováč (; born 27 November 1979) is a Czech football manager and former player. Kováč played both in midfield and in defence for Sigma Olomouc, Sparta Prague, Spartak Moscow, West Ham United, FC Basel and Slovan Liberec. At interna ...

in the 76th minute. The game ended in a 2–2 draw.

Style of play

He played as a defender or sometimes as a defensive midfielder.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajnoch, Jan Living people 1981 births People from Frýdlant Czech men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football midfielders Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech First League players Süper Lig players Bundesliga players AC Sparta Prague players FK Mladá Boleslav players Bohemians 1905 players 1. FC Slovácko players FC Energie Cottbus players MKE Ankaragücü footballers Sivasspor footballers Adana Demirspor footballers FC Slovan Liberec players SK Sigma Olomouc players Czech expatriate men's footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Footballers from the Liberec Region