Jan Košek

Jan Košek (28 July 1884 – 30 December 1927) was a Czech professional footballer who played as a striker. In his career, he scored over 920 goals in 338 official matches, according with Grupo Bezik.

Early life[]

Jan Košek was born in Turnov in 1884 and went to Prague to study. The first match that was ever recorded, that Jan played in, was in 1889 for Letna Circle. The score ended 5-4 to Letna Circle and Košek scored 3 of the 5. For the first few years of his life in Prague, Košek played for Academic Gymnasium Prague, Letna Circle and Union Letná.^[3]

Club career[]

1903 he moved from Union Letná to Slavia Prague and in his first season with Slavia Prague he scored 64 goals, as a 19 year old.

In 1904 he transferred to Sparta Prague and played less than a year there. He went there with fellow Slavia Prague teammates, Jindřich Baumruk and Rudolf Krummer, In the same year, both his parents and his sister died. He at least scored 17 goals this year for Slavia Prague.^[4]

In 1905 he returned back to Slavia Prague and met his new coach Jake Madden. The way Slavia Prague trained changed massively, it became more expertly done and more modern. At this point in his career for Slavia Prague, he scored 178 goals.^[5]

1906 was a great year for him and Slavia Prague. During this year, Slavia Prague played 48 matches and won 39 times, with a goals scored to goals conceded ratio of 340:62. He at least scored 39 goals this season and on 10 October he scored his 300th goals for Slavia Prague in a 7-2 win aganist BTC.^[6]

In 1907, Slavia Prague continued to play a vast amount of international friendly matches. Most of these matches were played against teams from neighbouring countries. Also this year, Slavia Prague won their biggest ever derby in a 9-1 against Sparta Prague. Jan scored twice in this match. In this year he scored at least 67 goals.^[7]

In 1908, Slavia Prague won the Charity Cup.

In 1909, Slavia Prague only played a total of 40 matches.

In 1910 Slavia played 21 matches and didn't lose a single one. These matches were played against amateur teams from England. Slavia Prague managed to win a second Charity Cup. In the semi-final Slavia Prague beat Sparta Prague 5-1 and in the final Slavia Prague won 5-2 against CFK Smichov Praha. In both of these games Jan scored a goal.

1911 was the best year for Jan as he scored 135 goals.^[8] In a game against Aberdeen, the score was 2-2 and in the 82nd minute, Košek took the ball on the half turn and rifled it into the net from 30 meters. This goal was called, by many, the best of his 819. This year he also won another Charity Cup. At this point he scored 700 goals for Slavia Prague.^[9]

1912 was another great year for Košek, he notched up 68 goals.^[10] For the third time in a row, Slavia Prague won the Charity Cup, in a 4-3 victory against FK Viktoria Žižkov.

1913 was Košek's final full year at Slavia Prague as a player. On March 29 he announced that he was to retire from football at the age of just 29.

1914 sparked a change of decision from Košek, as he agreed to play several games for Slavia Prague, due to lack of players. During this year he played a total of 6 games and scored 8 goals.^[11]

International career[]

Jan Košek would regularly play for Bohemia and Moravia as well as the Prague national team.^{[clarification needed]} In 1903 he defended the colours of the national team of Prague in a game against Budapest, which Prague lost 2-1.^[12] Many of his games for Prague are not classified in his official statistics. The Bohemia and Moravia played a number of matches under the regulations of FIFA from 1906-1908. Jan took part in three of them and scored four goals. On October 7 1906 Bohemia and Moravia drew 4-4 with Hungary and Jan scored a goal in the 88th minute to set the final. Baumruk scored 3 and Jan Jenny-Stary scored the other, however other sources claim that Košek scored 2 and so did Jenny Stary.^[13] The next year they met again in a friendly, Bohemia and Moravia won 5-3 and Jan scored a hat-trick) and Josef Belka scored the other two. But again another source claims that Jan scored 4 and Josef only got one.^[14]

In 1908, FIFA did not allow Bohemia and Moravia to take part in the 1908 London Olympics

In 1911, Košek won the European Amateur Championship. On they way to the tournament, they played a team from Brussels, in which they defeated them 6-1 with Košek scoring two goals.

Style of play[]

Košek was a very strong and fast athlete, clocking 100m in 11 seconds. He had such a powerful left-foot which allowed him to score many longshots. Due to his high speed, he always played on the final man on the attack and was able to spin away from the defender with ease. He would complete the attack from any position on the pitch.^[15]

Legacy[]

Statisticians have claimed he scored over 800 times in his career, with the figures 804, 812 and 819 coming up the most frequently. Some sources even state that he score over 1000 goals.^[16] He scored a total of 819 goals for Slavia Prague, only second to Josef Bican with 1137 goals.^{[1] [17]} Also, according to Grupo Bezik, Jan score 1305 goals in 477 games in his career, including youth and unofficial games. As part of Slavia Prague 125th anniversary Jan was announced as one of the players in a “Historic Eleven” voted by the fans.^[18]

Life after career[]

After his playing career Jan worked in senior positions at Slavia Prague for many years.^[19] He died on December 30, 1927 at the age of 43 after a long illness.

Honours[]

Charity Cup: 1910,1911,1912

Silver Cup: 1911

European Amateur Championship: 1911

References[]