Kadeřábek becomes a legend in Hoffenheim! How high in the club’s history can he be?

Pavel Kadeřábek signed a new contract with Hoffenheim on Thursday and will remain with the modest German club until at least 2025. He is already one of the most important figures in the club’s history. How high can he go in it?

It was the summer of 2015, when Hoffenheim bought the then twenty-three-year-old talented right-back from Sparta Prague for €3.5 million. Few expected the modest German outfit to become just a sort of transfer station, but everything is different.

Pavel Kadeřábek has been a Hoffenheim player for seven years now, his 30th birthday is approaching and he is extremely happy at the club. Whenever he is healthy, he is one of the key players and can more or less already be considered a club legend.

Of course, in the past there was a lot of talk about a move to a bigger club, but the Czech back didn’t want to leave at any cost. Dortmund were supposedly interested, but Kadeřábek said that if he was to move, he would only move to the absolute top of the world, which never happened.

On Thursday, he signed a new contract at Hoffenheim, which will keep him at the not-so-popular club until 2025. If Kadeřábek keeps this contract, he will spend 10 years at the club.

“At the time, the decision to move to Hoffenheim was the perfect step for me both from a sporting and personal point of view. I was able to develop as a young player and my family and I feel great in the region. Thanks to our participation in the Champions League and Europa League, we have gained a lot of recognition for the club, even overseas,” the Czech international told the club’s website.

Kadeřábek is well aware that he is slowly approaching the 200 games played in a Hoffenheim jersey. In particular, he has managed 188 games in which he scored 12 goals and notched 26 assists.

The Sparta Prague alumnus appreciates the opportunity to spend 10 years at Hoffenheim and looks forward to a future together with the club and the fans. He is confident that he can continue to help the club move forward with his performances. He would like to reach the magic mark of 300 games played.

Kadeřábek is respected by the club and the fans

Apart from the fact that Kadeřábek is very fond of Hoffenheim and the region where the club with the unpopular owner is located, the opposite is also true. The Czech footballer is already a respected figure, which is confirmed by the statements of a member of the club’s management and the reactions of fans on social media.

“Pavel has been a fixture of our team for almost seven years, he has become a fan favourite. Thanks to his defensive and offensive qualities, he has contributed significantly to the success and development of the club in recent seasons. In private, he is a quiet, calm and family man, but on the field he is a tireless driver, one of the best players in the league in his position,” says Alexander Rosen, a member of the management.

How high can Kadeřábek rank in the club’s history?

As already mentioned, Kadeřábek could already start to be described as a club legend. Understandably thanks to the fact that Hoffenheim is not a club with a great and glorious tradition, quite the opposite.

Even in its region Hoffenheim does not have too many die-hard fans. The fans of most opponents are louder in the away sector than the home fans. However, the club is still building its legacy, even though it is unpopular in Germany because of its exemption from the 50+1 rule or its wealthy owner. In another ten years, things could be very different.

But one thing is certain. Kadeřábek is one of the players who are helping Hoffenheim write its legacy. Only six players have played more games for the club than the Czech international. Only six players have played over 200 games for the club.

Only three players are ahead of the Spartan, namely Sebastian Rudy (296 games), Oliver Baumann (279 games) and Hoffenheim’s most productive player ever, Andrej Kramaric (206 games).

It is almost certain that when Kadeřábek leaves Hoffenheim, he will have the third, or at most fourth highest number of games played in the club’s history. It will depend more or less only on whether the club keeps Kramaric, its biggest star.

Either way, Kadeřábek will definitely be one of the club’s biggest legends when his new contract expires.

Sources: TSG Hoffenheim, Transfermarkt, Bundesliga