Clearly, Tomas Soucek defended the Czech Ballon d’Or by a huge margin

It used to be Pavel Nedved, after him Petr Cech. Now, Tomáš Souček is the clear leader among footballers on the domestic scene. After winning the Footballer of the Year award, the Havlíčkův Brod native has now clearly defended his win of the Golden Ball of the Czech Republic.

In fact, there was no doubt about the winner at all. Souček played all the Premier League matches last year and scored an impressive 10 goals. With West Ham, he had an extraordinary success, finishing in sixth place. He was even among the eight candidates for the award for the best player of the season.

And he also did well on the national team front. He scored a hat-trick in the World Cup qualifiers against Estonia, helped to dominate Group B in the Nations League and led the Czech team to the quarter-finals at the Euros.

The former Slavie player earned 1,213 points from the 52 journalists who voted in this year’s poll. His club and national teammate Vladimír Coufal, who finished second, was 411 points behind. The third place was taken by Patrik Schick, a five-goal scorer from the European Championships, with only 62 points.

Since the poll is voted twice – in the autumn and in the spring – we can also compare the seasons. Alex King experienced the biggest drop, finishing fourth in the first part, and twenty-fourth in the second. Overall, he was seventh.

Tomáš Holeš, on the other hand, became the biggest year-on-year jumper. While last year he didn’t have a point, this year he is the highest of all the players of the championship Slavia. But he is not the best of the men playing in the top Czech competition.

The 18-year-old Spartan talent Adam Hložek, who, like Vladimír Darida, scored 332 points, is three places higher. But the former national team captain was pushed to fifth place by a greater number of better placings.

The results of the Golden Ball Czech Republic poll for the year 2020/21:

1. Tomáš Souček (West Ham) 1213 points, 2. Vladimír Coufal (Slavia Praha/West Ham) 802, 3. Patrik Schick (Leverkusen) 740, 4. Tomas Vaclik (FC Sevilla) 435, 5. Vladimir Darida (Hertha Berlin), 6. Adam Hložek (Sparta Prague) both 332, 7. Alex Kral (Spartak Moscow) 286, 8. Jakub Jankto (Sampdoria Genoa) 281, 9. Tomas Holeš (Slavia Prague) 242, 10. Tomas Pekhart (Legia Warsaw) 195.

11. Ondřej Kolář (Slavia Praha) 194, 12. Lukáš Juliš (Sparta Praha) 175, 13. Antonín Barák (Verona) 174, 14. Lukáš Provod 161, 15. Ondřej Kúdela (both Slavia Praha) 120, 16. Jiří Pavlenka (Bremen) 94, 17. Lukáš Masopust (Slavia Praha) 71, 18. Tomáš Kalas (Bristol) 59, 19. David Zima (Slavia Praha) 52, 20. Václav Černý (Twente Enschede) 48.

21. Bořek Dočkal, 22. Ondřej Čelůstka (both Sparta Prague) both 37, 23. Petr Ševčík (Slavia Prague) 34, 24. Theodor Gebre Selassie (Bremen) 33, 25. Jan Bořil (Slavia Prague) 32, 26. Pavel Kadeřábek (Hoffenheim) 31, 27. Filip Novák (Fenerbahce Istanbul), 28. Michal Sadílek (PSV Eindhoven/Liberec), 29. Zdeněk Ondrášek (Dallas/Plzeň) all 14, 30. Tomáš Petrášek (Częstochowa) 13.

31. Jan Kuchta (Slavia Praha) 12, 32. Filip Nguyen (Liberec) 11, 33. Matěj Vydra (Burnley) 9, 34. Jaroslav Zelený (Jablonec) 7, 35. Ales Cermak (Plzen), 36. Jakub Pešek (Liberec) both 6, 37. Ladislav Krejčí Jr. (Sparta Praha) 5, 38. Michael Rabušic (Liberec), Roman Hubník (Olomouc) and David Pavelka (Kasimpasa/Sparta Praha).

41. Adam Karabec (Sparta Praha) all 4, 42. Martin Jedlička (Dunajská Streda) and Jan Laštůvka (Ostrava) both 3, 44. Jakub Brabec (Pilsen), 45. Tomáš Poznar (Zlín) both 2, 46. Michal Kadlec (Slovácko), Ondřej Lingr (Slavia Praha), Aleš Matějů (Brescia) and Lukáš Kalvach (Plzeň) all 1.

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