Petr Jiráček (born 2 March 1986) is a Czech

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 ...

. A

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he operates either as a box-to-box or more in an attacking role.

Career

Clubs

After starting out at

Baník Sokolov ''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''. ...

, club where he had arrived at 10 years old, and spending two professional seasons there, Jiráček made a move to

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victoria ...

. With Viktoria, he made exactly 100 league appearances and was a key part in the team that won the 2010–11 Czech championship, a feat never accomplished before in the history of the club. The title also gave them the opportunity to play the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

, in which they reached the group stage, finishing third only behind giants

F.C. Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...

and A.C. Milan. Jiracek only failed to appear in one match at the European competition. He also won the

2009–10 Czech Cup The 2009–10 Czech Cup was the seventeenth edition of the annual football knock-out tournament of the Czech Republic. It began on 19 July 2009 with the preliminary round. The final was held on 18 May 2010. Teams Preliminary round , colspan="3" ...

and the 2011 Czech Supercup. In December 2011, Jiráček signed a four-and-a-half year deal with German

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 ...

side VfL Wolfsburg. He immediately made an impression as he scored a brace in his fourth league game to secure a 3–2 win against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

. He suffered an injury in the end of February, however, that led him to miss a number of matches and be on the bench a few times for the rest of the season. On 26 August 2012, VfL Wolfsburg head coach Felix Magath confirmed that Jiráček would join Hamburger SV for an undisclosed fee after failing to impress during his stay in Wolfsburg.

National team

In September 2011, he made a national team debut in a match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and soon became first choice in the team managed by

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 international ...

. He scored his first goal in a 1–0 win against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

in the Euro 2012 qualifier play-offs. He went on to play a crucial part in the team that reached the quarterfinals of the

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

, scoring two goals in the tournament, both opening goals against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in the group stage, being elected the man of the match in the latter match.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Czech Republic's goal tally first.''

Career statistics

Honours

;Viktoria Plzeň * Czech Cup: 2009–10 * Czech First League:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Czech Supercup The Czech Supercup () was an annual football match between the winners of the Czech First League and the Czech Cup, organised by the Czech Football Association. It was last sponsored by Synot Tip and was therefore officially known as the Synot Tip ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiracek, Petr 1986 births Living people Czech men's footballers Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech expatriate men's footballers FK Baník Sokolov players FC Viktoria Plzeň players VfL Wolfsburg players Hamburger SV players Czech First League players Bundesliga players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany UEFA Euro 2012 players AC Sparta Prague players People from Sokolov Men's association football midfielders FK Jablonec players FC Zlín players Czech expatriate sportspeople in Germany Footballers from the Karlovy Vary Region 1. SK Prostějov players Czech National Football League players