Václav Hladký (born 14 November 1990) is a Czech 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 plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

. He has previously played for

Zbrojovka Brno Pre-war Československá zbrojovka, akc.spol. (or a.s.) (Czechoslovak Armory)and post-war Zbrojovka Brno, n.p.(Brno Armory) was a maker of small arms, light artillery, and motor vehicles in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It also made other products and ...

and

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

in his homeland, St Mirren in Scotland, and Salford City in England, and has represented his country at youth level up to under-20.

Career

Zbrojovka Brno

Having signed in 2012, he spent his first year as second choice goalkeeper behind

Radek Petr Radek Petr (born 24 February 1987) is a Czech footballer who plays as a goalkeeper and is currently free agent. Club career Petr started his career at hometown club Baník Ostrava. In August 2007, he signed a 4-year contract with Serie A side P ...

, but was made first choice in 2013. He made his début on the opening day of 2013–14 season against

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 ...

, managing to keep a clean sheet. During his time at the club, Brno goalkeeping coach Luboš Přibyl compared him to fellow Czech goalkeeper

Petr Čech Petr Čech (; born 20 May 1982) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He also plays semi-professional ice hockey as a goaltender for Chelmsford Chieftains. Described by numerous players, pundits and managers as o ...

. On 18 October 2014, he was sent off against

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 ...

. During the 2014–15 season he was dropped from the team after a series of mistakes, and by the end of the season declared he wanted to leave the club having fallen behind Dušan Melichárek as the club's number one.

Slovan Liberec

After signing in 2015, Hladký was second choice goalkeeper for over two years, initially behind Tomáš Koubek, signed on loan from Sparta Prague at the same time. He was selected for four league games in the autumn and was praised for his performances, which including keeping a clean sheet against Sparta Prague, and against Fastav Zlín in the

Czech Cup The Czech Cup ( cs, Pohár FAČR), officially known as the MOL Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the major men's football cup competition in the Czech Republic. It is organised by the Czech Football Association. The Czech Cup was first held in 19 ...

. He would remain backup, initially behind

Martin Dúbravka Martin Dúbravka (born 15 January 1989) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Newcastle United and the Slovakia national team. After playing in the top flights of Slovak, Danish and Czech football, Dúbravka j ...

, and then behind Ondřej Kolář, before getting his opportunity in the spring of 2018. He would be dropped the following season for

Filip Nguyen Filip Nguyen (born 14 September 1992) is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Slovácko. Club career Nguyen played youth football with Loko Vltavín and Sparta Prague, joining the latter in 2012. On 20 October 2013, Ng ...

, signed from second division

Vlašim Vlašim (; german: Wlaschim) is a town in Benešov District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. Vlašim is known for its castle and English style park. Administrative parts Villages of Bolina, D ...

St Mirren

After falling back down the pecking order at Slovan Liberec, Hladký signed for St Mirren on an 18-month deal in January 2019. He quickly became a fan favourite at

St Mirren Park St Mirren Park, also known as The SMISA Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Paisley, Scotland. It is the home of St Mirren. The stadium is the sixth home of the club and replaced Love Street. History Talks over a new s ...

, with goalkeeping coach

Jamie Langfield James Robert Langfield (born 22 December 1979) is a Scottish football player and coach, who is currently the goalkeeping coach at St Mirren. Langfield, who played as a goalkeeper, started his career with Dundee. He then played for Partick Thi ...

saying he could be the player to keep St Mirren in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

. He made the BBC's Scottish Premiership team of the week following his performance in a 1–1 draw with Heart of Midlothian. On 26 May, St Mirren played out a 1–1 in the

play-off final The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

against

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, meaning the two teams would play a penalty shootout; Hladký saved three of the four penalties he faced as St Mirren won the shootout 2–0 and therefore staying in the Premiership. Hladký dedicated the victory to his best friend Josef Šural, who died in a bus crash a month prior, and credited Langfield, St Mirren manager

Oran Kearney Oran Kearney (born 29 July 1978) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who is currently in charge of NIFL Premiership side Coleraine. Playing career Kearney joined Ballymena United from Moyola Park (Stephen Doey� ...

and chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick for supporting him during the difficult moments. In the summer, St Mirren rejected a £200k offer from Qarabağ, with new manager

Jim Goodwin James Michael Goodwin (born 20 November 1981) is an Irish football manager and former player who manages Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen. Goodwin had a playing career from 2000 to 2019 in Scotland and England, playing in a defensive role wi ...

declaring him the best goalkeeper in the league. In June 2020, Hladký left Saints when he rejected the offer of a new contract.

Salford City

In August 2020 he joined

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side Salford City on a two-year contract. On his competitive début, an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

match against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

, he saved a penalty from

Joe Mattock Joseph William Mattock (born 15 May 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a left-back for EFL League Two club Harrogate Town. Mattock is a graduate of the Leicester City youth academy and has also represented England youth te ...

to send Salford through 4–2 after a shoot-out. In the delayed

2020 EFL Trophy Final The 2020 EFL Trophy Final (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2020 Papa John's Trophy Final) was a football match played at Wembley Stadium on 13 March 2021. It decided the winners of the 2019–20 EFL Trophy, the 36th edition of EFL Trophy, th ...

played on 13 March 2021, Hladky saved the decisive penalty from

Ronan Curtis Ronan Curtis (born 29 March 1996) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a left-winger for the Republic of Ireland national team. Curtis started his career with Derry City in 2015, spending four seasons there and amassing 100 appear ...

to help Salford win 4–2 on penalties, having drawn 0–0 in normal time against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. Hladky was awarded the League Two Golden Glove award; he kept 22 clean sheets throughout the season, the most in the division, and he was named in the League Two Team of the Year by the

Professional Footballers' Association The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members. The aims of ...

as well as the EFL's League Two Team of the Season. Hladky's performances also saw him voted Salford's player of the season by the clubs' supporters, while

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

named him in their team of the year for conceding 34 goals and saving 77.2% of shots faced, both league highs.

Ipswich Town

After just one season with Salford, Hladky was signed by

, signing a three-year contract.

Club statistics

Honours

Salford City *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

: 2019–20 Individual * EFL League Two Golden Glove:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* EFL League Two Team of the Season: 2020–21 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2020–21 League TwoThe PFA: "PFA League Two Team of the Year"
/ref> * Salford City Player of the Season:

References

External links

* *
Profile at FC Zbrojovka Brno official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hladky, Vaclav 1990 births Living people Czech footballers Czech Republic youth international footballers FC Zbrojovka Brno players Footballers from Brno FC Slovan Liberec players St Mirren F.C. players Czech First League players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Association football goalkeepers Czech expatriate footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland Salford City F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Czech expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in England