Personalities of Czech football: Jaroslav Plašil. Captain and legend of Girondins Bordeaux

Jaroslav Plašil is one of the players who combined the vast majority of his career with playing in one league. We are talking specifically about the French Ligue 1, in which Plašil played in more than 400 matches. The Czech midfielder has also been committed to the national team, in which he has played over a hundred games.

Jaroslav Plašil was born on January 5, 1982 in Opočno and went through Černíkovice and Rychnov nad Kněžnou as a youth player before making his way to Hradec Kralove. Here he started his professional career, but he only managed to play four games for the first team.

Plašil impressed so much at the U16 European Youth Championship that he was bought by French side Monaco, where he got his first taste of Ligue 1 after a short stint in Créteil.

In Monaco, he also gained valuable experience from European Cups. Especially in the Champions League, where he watched his team’s futile efforts to win the trophy from this competition from the bench. In the final, Monaco lost to Porto 0:3, but it was still a great success for the young Plašil.

After seven years in Monaco, Plašil decided to try the Spanish Primera División, where he was engaged by Osasuna. Although he gradually developed into one of the team’s key figures, after two years he decided to return to France.

And then, from 2009, his story with Bordeaux began to be written. It lasted ten years and he is now rightly regarded as one of the club’s greatest legends.

During this time, Plašil played 290 competitive matches for Bordeaux and became the captain of the team. Thus, he took the trophy for the French Cup winners for the team. In addition, he also captured the French Super Cup at the beginning of his engagement with the team.

Plašil finished his national team career in 2016, and the club one three years later. His last game was a 1-0 league win against Caen, after which Plašil moved to the club’s management.

Plašil had been on the bench of Bordeaux as an assistant coach, but this tenure did not end well as he watched the famous club fall to Ligue 2 with his own eyes.

Sources: Ligue 1, Girondins Bordeaux, Transfermarkt