Josef Jindřišek (born 14 February 1981) is a

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 ...

retired 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 played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He spent the vast majority of his career in

Bohemians 1905 Bohemians Praha 1905, commonly known as Bohemka or Bohemians Prague, is a professional association football, football club based in Vršovice, Prague, Czech Republic. The club competes in the Czech First League, Fortuna Liga, the top division ...

. He is a significant personality of the

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 ...

with 448 league caps (second highest number in Czech First League history). He is the oldest player to ever play in the Czech First League and its oldest scorer.

Life and career

Josef Jindřišek was born 14 February 1981 in

Plavy Plavy is a municipality and village in Jablonec nad Nisou District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Plavy consists of two municipal parts (in brackets population according to the ...

. He was born into a poor family and had six siblings. He was raised in

FK Jablonec FK Jablonec () is a Czech Republic, Czech professional association football, 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 se ...

. He debuted for Jablonec in the Czech First League in August 2003. He played for Jablonec until 2007, when he transferred to

Sigma Olomouc SK Sigma Olomouc is a Czech professional football club based in the city of Olomouc. The club currently competes in the Czech First League, the first tier of Czech football. The club played in the first tier league for 30 years between 1984 and 2 ...

. From 2009 until the end of his career, he played for the Prague club

, including the time when the club was relegated to the

Czech National Football League The Czech National Football League (, ''FNL''), known as Chance Národní Liga due to sponsorship reasons, is the second level professional association football league in the Czech Republic. Before 2013 it was known as 2. liga or Druhá liga. The ...

. In April 2025, Jindřišek announced his retirement. His last match took place on 4 May. He was nicknamed "Vršovice's Gattuso" (after the

Vršovice Vršovice is a cadastral district of Prague. All of Vršovice lies within the Prague 10 administrative district. Vršovice is located south-east of the city centre. It borders Vinohrady to the north, Nusle to the south-west, Michle to the south and ...

district of Prague, where Bohemians 1905 resides, and

Gennaro Gattuso Gennaro Ivan Gattuso (; born 9 January 1978) is an Italians, Italian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is currently the Manager (association football), head coach of the Italy na ...

, who played the same position as him).

Records

Jindřišek's farewell match was his 448th league appearance, which at the time of the end of his career is the second highest number in Czech First League history. With 357 caps for

, he also has the most caps in the Czech First League history of this club. Jindřišek is the oldest player that appeared in the Czech First League. He obtained this record on 22 October 2023, when he started in the away match against Jablonec 0–1 at the age of 42 years, 8 months and 8 days. At the end of his career, he still held this record, and competed in his final match at the age of 44 years, 2 months and 20 days. On 30 April 2023, Jindřišek's goal from penalty supported the 4–1 win against Jablonec, raising the record for the oldest scorer to 42 years, 2 months, 16 days of age. His record did not last long and was surpassed by

Marek Matějovský Marek Matějovský (born 20 December 1981) is a Czech former footballer who played as a central midfielder. He was valued as a creative player with a high number of assists for goals. He is among the most significant players of the history of the ...

, but Jindřišek scored a goal from penalty in his farewell match against

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech professional association football, football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won thr ...

, supporting the 4–1 win of Bohemians 1905. A goal at the age of 44 years, 2 months and 20 days is a record that is unique not only in the Czech Republic, bu in whole Europe. Given the end of Matějovský's career, it is certain that it will remain unbeaten for a long time.

Honours

Individual *

Personality of the Year: 2019–20,

2022–23 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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jindrisek, Josef 1981 births Living people People from Jablonec nad Nisou District Czech men's footballers Czech First League players Bohemians 1905 players FK Jablonec players SK Sigma Olomouc players Men's association football defenders 21st-century Czech sportsmen