Milan Fukal (born 16 May 1975, in

Jablonec nad Nisou Jablonec nad Nisou (; german: Gablonz an der Neiße) is a city in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 45,000 inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region. It is a local centre for education, and is known for its glass ...

) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *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 ...

. The defender began his career with

FK Jablonec FK Jablonec () is a Czech professional football club based in Jablonec nad Nisou. The club has played in the top league of Czech football, Czech First League, since 1994. History Jablonec played its first season of top league football in the 197 ...

. In 1999, he was bought by the Czech champion team

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

and called up by the Czech national team, for which he won 19

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 Java ...

(two goals). His participation in

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

gained the attention of 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 ...

team

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

, who took him to Germany. Before the 2004–05 season, he moved to

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, staying with them until the start of the 2006–07 season. Following a trial week at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, and an interest in his services from

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, he was ready to move to England. However, neither club followed up their interest and Fukal and Mönchengladbach agreed on a contract cancellation that allowed him to move back home to

and to sign a deal with his hometown side,

. 2008 Fukal changed to the Austrian first league club

Kapfenberger SV Kapfenberger SV is an Austrian association football club from Kapfenberg. They won the 2007–08 Austrian Football First League and advanced to the Austrian Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1919 as ''Kapfenberger SC''. The club was renamed ...

. After 3 seasons, Fukal moved in 2011 to

FC Hradec Králové FC Hradec Králové is a Czech football club based in the city of Hradec Králové. The club, which was founded in 1905, won the Czechoslovak First League in the 1959–60 season. The club currently plays in the Czech First League. Following th ...

, where he played in the Czech First League for two more years. In 2013, Fukal played in Austria for SV Esternberg.

References

External links

* * * * * 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Jablonec nad Nisou Association football defenders Czech footballers Czech Republic under-21 international footballers Czech Republic international footballers AC Sparta Prague players Bohemians 1905 players Czech First League players Hamburger SV players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Bundesliga players Expatriate footballers in Germany 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players FK Jablonec players FC Hradec Králové players Kapfenberger SV players Czech expatriate sportspeople in Germany {{CzechRepublic-footy-defender-stub