Jaromír Blažek (; born 29 December 1972) is a Czech former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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. Apart from one season in Germany, he has spent his entire professional career in the Czech Republic. Blažek has also been called up as a reserve goalkeeper to the

Czech Republic national football team The Czech Republic national football team (), recognised by FIFA as Czechia, represents the Czech Republic in men's international Association football, football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR). H ...

at three

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s and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

Club career

Born in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, Blažek started his career in

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

, where he got to play his first league games. After two years during which he was mainly used as a substitute, he moved to Dynamo České Budějovice to become the number one goalkeeper there. That 1992–93 season was to be the last of the

Czechoslovak First League The Czechoslovak First League (, ) was the premier football (soccer), football league in the Czechoslovakia from 1925 to 1993, with the exception of World War II. Czechoslovakia was occupied by German forces who formed Gauliga Sudetenland and Ga ...

, and he decided to spend his first season in the new

Gambrinus liga The Czech First League () also known as the Chance Liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Czech Republic and the highest level of the Czech Republic football league system. Seasons typically run from ...

with Viktoria Žižkov, which turned out to be a good choice since he won his first title, the

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. He left after only one year though, moving across

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

to FC Bohemians. They were relegated that year and Blažek, who did not want to spend a year in the Second League, was loaned for one year to his first club Slavia Prague, where he won the 1995–96 Czech First League. Since Bohemians regained promotion the same year, he returned there and stayed for three and a half years. However, while his club was not performing very well, Blažek drew the attention of giants

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

, transferring there in early 2000 and winning back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. He went on loan to rivals Marila Příbram in 2001 but returned after one year. After that, he played almost every single game for Sparta Prague, be it league, cup or Champions League games. It was a very successful period for Blažek as he won four more titles and three national cups. In 2007, he decided to move abroad and was sold to German club 1. FC Nürnberg, who purchased him as a replacement for Raphael Schäfer who had left for

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

over the summer. Blažek was the number one there but fell sick in April and could not play the end of a season that saw Nürnberg being relegated. In June, it was announced that Blažek was returning to Sparta Prague for the following season. However, on 16 December 2011, Sparta Prague announced their decision to terminate Blažek's contract early, releasing him as a free agent. This was confirmed by the player's agent Pavel Paska. On 22 February 2014, in a league match for Jihlava against

Znojmo Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...

, Blažek kept his 139th clean sheet, setting a new goalkeeper record for the Czech league.

International career

Blažek made his debut for the national team on 29 March 2000 in a

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against

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that ended up in a 3–1 win. Due to the dominance of Petr Čech as the first-choice national team goalkeeper, Blažek was unable to make regular appearances for his nation. He was part of the

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 *Czech (surnam ...

squad at

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Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

, and the 2006 World Cup, but the only tournament he played at was Euro 2004.

Personal life

He is married and has two children – Jakub and Aneta. Blažek is the cousin of tennis player

Radek Štěpánek Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Source:

Honours

Club

Viktoria Žižkov *

Czech Cup The Czech Cup (), 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 1961. The winner ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Slavia Prague *

Czech First League The Czech First League () also known as the Chance Liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Czech Republic and the highest level of the Czech Republic football league system. Seasons typically run from A ...

: 1995–96 Bohemians 1905 * Czech Second League: 3rd Place 1997–98 * Czech Second League: 1998–99 Sparta Prague *

: 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07 *

: Runner-up 2003–04, 2008–09, 2010–11 *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

: Runner-up

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Vysočina Jihlava * Czech Second League: Runner-up 2011–12

International

Czech Republic *

: Semi-finalist

Individual

* Team of the Year 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2008–09 * Most clean sheets 2002–03, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2010–11 * Best goalkeeper 2012–13 * Second best goalkeeper between the years 1993–2013 by the fans' poll * Player of the Month: October 2013 Czech Footballer of the Year * Personality of the League 2005–06

Records

: Oldest player in history of the

(42 years, 4 months) *

: Most clean sheets in history of the

(157) *

: Most played seasons (19)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blazek, Jaromir 1972 births Living people Footballers from Brno Men's association football goalkeepers Czech men's footballers SK Slavia Prague players FK Viktoria Žižkov players AC Sparta Prague players FK Příbram players SK Dynamo České Budějovice players 1. FC Nürnberg players FC Vysočina Jihlava players Czechoslovak First League players Czech First League players Bundesliga players Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech Republic men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Czech expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 21st-century Czech sportsmen