Zdeněk Ondrášek (born 22 December 1988) 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 lea ...

who plays as a forward for Dynamo České Budějovice.

Club career

Dynamo České Budějovice

Ondrášek started his career in the South-Bohemian side České Budějovice in 2007, doing a short loan-spell at FC Zenit Čáslav in 2009. Upon returning to Dynamo, he delivered a decent season, becoming the top scorer for the club during the

2010–11 Czech First League The 2010–11 Czech First League season, known as the Gambrinus liga for sponsorship reasons, was the 18th edition of the top flight Czech First League annual football tournament. It began on 16 July 2010 and finished on 28 May 2011. Sparta Pragu ...

. The following season he was seen as the key pillar of the team, scoring eight league goals in twenty rounds. The last two matches he was injured due to a fractured finger. His good performance drew the attention of foreign clubs. Upon his transfer to Tromsø in 2012, the manager of Dynamo Jiří Kotrba noted that if the sale went through it would be an historic event, as it was the first time in history that Dynamo had sold a player directly abroad.

Tromsø IL

Ondrášek joined the Norwegian side Tromsø IL on a loan in March 2012. He made an immediate impact on the club. In the league opener, Ondrášek came in off the bench for his debut and, despite heavy snow, scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against

Fredrikstad FK Fredrikstad Fotballklubb (also known as Fredrikstad or FFK) is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from the town of Fredrikstad. With nine league championships and twelve Norwegian Football Cup, Norwegian Cup wins, FFK ...

. His starting debut came a week later 4 April during an away draw against

Aalesunds FK Aalesunds Fotballklubb, commonly known as Aalesund or AaFK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from the town of Ålesund (town), Ålesund, that competes in the Norwegian first division, the second tier of the Norwegi ...

. He continued playing well and contributed a total of 8 goals in 14 matches before Tromsø IL decided to make the move permanent and signed him to a contract that will see him stay at the club until 2015. The season proved to be a great success for the Czech striker, seeing him score 14 goals and becoming the top goalscorer in the league that season. This was just two goals short of his pre-season pledge of 16.

Wisła Kraków

Ondrášek was transferred to Polish first-division team

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system, ...

in 2016, where he has appeared in 66 matches in Ekstraklasa, scoring 20 goals and nine assists. He has also scored one goal and one assist in three Polish Cup matches.

FC Dallas

Ondrášek signed with

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The franchise be ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

on 18 December 2018.

Viktoria Plzeň

On 13 September 2020, Ondrášek signed for

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 Victor ...

for an undisclosed fee. He made the decision to return to the Czech Republic for family reasons.

FCSB

Ondrášek signed with Romanian Liga 1 club

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), formerly named and still sometimes referred to as FC Steaua București, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the Liga I, the top flight of the Romanian football le ...

on 28 June 2021. On 29 July, club owner

Gigi Becali George "Gigi" Becali (; born 25 June 1958) is a Romanian businessman, writer, politician and former convict, mostly known for his ownership of the FCSB football club. Becali was a Member of the European Parliament between June 2009 and Decembe ...

terminated his contract after just one month at the club and 68 minutes of total playing time. Becali said, "This is not a player for our team, it does not reach our level".

Return to former clubs

On 30 August 2021, Tromsø IL announced that Ondrášek had signed with the club, reuniting him with the team. Having left Tromsø at the end of 2021, he returned to

after signing a one-and-a-half-year deal with the Polish side on 7 January 2022. On 23 June 2023 Ondrášek signed as a free agent with Dynamo České Budějovice a two-year contract.

International career

On 2 October 2019, Ondrášek received his first senior call up from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

for their

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

qualifier against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. On 11 October in his international debut, he came on as a substitute and scored the winning goal for the Czech Republic in their 2–1 victory over England.

Personal life

Nicknamed "The Cobra" () due to a large tattoo of a

cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

on his back, Ondrášek sports a host of other tattoos.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Czech Republic's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ondrášek goal.''

Honours

Individual *

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

top scorer:

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

(14 goals) *

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

Player of the Month: August 2018

References

External links

*
Guardian Football
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ondrasek, Zdenek 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Strakonice Czech men's footballers Men's association football forwards Czech Republic men's under-21 international footballers Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech First League players Czech National Football League players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Ekstraklasa players I liga players Major League Soccer players Liga I players SK Dynamo České Budějovice players FK Čáslav players Tromsø IL players Wisła Kraków players FC Dallas players FC Viktoria Plzeň players FCSB players Czech expatriate men's footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Czech expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Czech expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Czech expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Footballers from the South Bohemian Region 21st-century Czech sportsmen