Václav Ježek (1 October 1923,

Zvolen Zvolen (; hu, Zólyom; german: Altsohl) is a town in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina rivers, close to Banská Bystrica. It is surrounded by Poľana mountain from the East, by Kremnické vrchy from the West ...

– 27 August 1995,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

) was the coach of the

Czechoslovakia national football team The Czechoslovakia national football team ( cs, Československá fotbalová reprezentace, sk, Česko-slovenské národné futbalové mužstvo) was the national football team of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1993. The team was controlled by the Cze ...

when they won the 1976 European Championships.

Career

Chiefly remembered more as a famous coach than as a player, he became coach of

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 ...

for the first time in the 1960s, going on to transform the team and win two Czechoslovak titles, in 1965 and 1967. After this success, he left Czechoslovakia and moved to the Netherlands. From 1969 to 1972, he coached ADO Den Haag, leading them to third place in the Dutch league, before taking over as head coach of Czechoslovakia's national team. He created a new team of talented players including Ivo Viktor, Alexander Vencel,

Antonín Panenka Antonín Panenka (born 2 December 1948) is a Czech retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He spent most of his career representing Czechoslovak club Bohemians Prague. Panenka won UEFA Euro 1976 with the national team of Czec ...

Ladislav Jurkemik Ladislav Jurkemik (born 20 July 1953) is a former Slovak football player and later a football manager. He played in the Czechoslovak First League for Inter Bratislava and Dukla Banská Bystrica. Jurkemik played internationally for Czechoslovak ...

Zdeněk Nehoda Zdeněk Nehoda (born 9 May 1952, in Hulín) is a former Czech football forward. At international level, he played for Czechoslovakia, making 91 appearances and scoring 31 goals, usually as a right-winger. He was a participant in the 1982 FIFA W ...

, Anton Ondruš, Jaroslav Pollák and Ján Pivarník. The team won the European Championships in 1976, beating West Germany in a penalty shoot-out in the final, but failed to qualify for the 1978 World Cup Finals. Ježek was replaced as head coach by his assistant

Jozef Vengloš Jozef Vengloš (18 February 1936 – 26 January 2021) was a Slovak professional football player and manager. He held a doctorate in Physical Education and also specialised in Psychology. He was selected by FIFA on various occasions to lecture ...

. Ježek moved back to the Netherlands in 1978 as coach of

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

. His best league finish with the Rotterdam club was second in 1979. On leaving Feyenoord in 1982, Ježek was twice coach of Sparta Prague again in the next decade, and started a long period of success for the club, winning the Czechoslovak title several times. In 1993, he became the provisional head coach of the joint Czech-Slovak team, formed after the Czech Republic and Slovakia split in November 1992, in the qualifiers for the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. During the 1990s he also continued as a member of the managerial stuff of Slavia Prague. He also coached

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

. Ježek died in Prague in 1995, at the age of 71.

Honours

Manager

Sparta Prague *

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 ...

: 1964–65, 1966–67, 1983–84, 1986–87, 1987–88,

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Czechoslovak Cup The Czechoslovak Cup () was a football cup competition held in Czechoslovakia. It was officially created in 1960 and folded in 1993 with the split between Czech Republic and Slovakia. The cup was played throughout Czechoslovakia until 1968–69. ...

: 1983–84, 1987–88 Feyenoord * KNVB Cup: 1979–80 Czechoslovakia *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jezek, Vaclav 1923 births 1995 deaths Slovak football managers Czechoslovak football managers Czechoslovakia national football team managers AC Sparta Prague managers UEFA Euro 1976 managers UEFA European Championship-winning managers ADO Den Haag managers Feyenoord managers FC Zürich managers Sportspeople from Zvolen Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Czech expatriate football managers Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland