A window into the past: the goal against Wales changed Knoflíček’s life

Former Czechoslovakian international Ivo Knoflicek, a participant in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, played twice against Wales in the 1988 European Championship qualifiers. Each time he scored. His shot under the crossbar at Letná (2: 0) became the Goal of the Year 1987 and turned his life around.

It was the 32nd minute. Goalkeeper Luděk Mikloško kicked a long ball, Tomáš Skuhravý won a header and sent Ivo Knoflíček’s quick footed shot on the run. He shot the ball under the crossbar. “I went three times alone from the half to the goalkeeper. I ran away from them as I wanted,” recalls the former luxury goal scorer of Slavia Prague.

“I did well against Wales, scoring in the first qualifying game when we drew 1-1 at Wrexham. Rush equalised,” he points out how Wales had star players back then. Another was Mark Hughes.

“His new employer, Bayern Munich, sent a special helicopter to Letná to pick him up,” the Czechoslovakian national team player points out how the Welsh counterpart earned his position.

However, Knoflicek was the hero of the match (Michal Bílek added an insurance goal in the last minute). His strike was voted Goal of the Year in 1987 and sparked an incredible story.

“They saw it in England and the manager came to see me and said Derby County wanted to buy me. They had discussed my transfer six months before, Slavia would have released me on some conditions, but Kocek (the Football Association chairman) said I was only twenty-five and they were letting me go from thirty,” Knoflicek admits.

Even though he knew that he would not be able to play official football for eighteen months without permission from his parent club, Slavia Prague, and the Czechoslovak authorities, he did not back down. A year later, together with Luboš Kubík, he illegally left Slavia Prague’s pre-league training camp in the Federal Republic of Germany.

“I was the king of scorers in the league, scoring 21 goals, playing for the national team, I had already achieved everything at home. And this was an offer that could not be refused. I wanted out,” the native of Moravian Šardice does not deny.

His great shot opened the year with the theme song of the popular sports programme Goals, Points, Seconds. “As soon as I left socialist Czechoslovakia illegally in the autumn of 1988, my mother called me. That’s what you did back then when someone left,” he says, recalling the ideologically divided world of that time.

However, he can recall it today at any time. “I have it on a flash drive. In the Vinohrady theatre in Prague, D 21 staged a play called Knoflíček about my story and they gave me all the cuts of my goals. It was a really cool shot,” he admits. “But one that completely turned my life around…”

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