Personalities of Czech football: the icon of Dukla Ladislav Vízek

Ladislav Vízek is one of the biggest icons of Dukla football. During his active career he was one of the players who filled stadiums. His tricks with the ball and nice goals were very popular with the fans.

Ladislav Vízek was born in January 1955 in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. He started football in Hlušice, then moved to Jiskra Nový Bydžov. He was on the radar of the then Dukla chairman Rudolf Kock since his youth. “Vizour” was at that time in the army in Žatec Dukla, but it was already clear that the third league was not his ceiling.

In 1975, he traded Dukla Žatec for the much better known Dukla Prague. And he began to make his mark in the history of the army unit. Dukla won three league titles and twice won the Czechoslovak Cup. But Vízek believes that Dukla should have won the title more times.

“For the kind of team we had at Juliska, we didn’t win enough titles for my taste. But it was difficult. Everybody was playing against us at that time. We were the best, but we had to play everything ourselves. Some of the opponents, especially from Slovakia, were taking unexpected points, while the teams across the Morava River played against us full on, over the top – for dear life…,” Vízek recalls for the Dukla club website.

Slavia was very interested in Vízek at the time when he was in his sixth season in Dukla. He wouldn’t have resisted the transfer himself, he wanted to get a little bit of a shout, but Dukla chairman Kocek wouldn’t let him go, and at that time transfers were really rare.

Vízek’s favourite memory is his first title. “That first title in ’77, I was probably the happiest. I remember that we celebrated it for a week,” says Vízek.

Vízek played 28 league games that season and scored 13 goals. The season before, he scored seven times, and in the following seasons he scored 11, 11, 16, 7, 15, 13, 7, 7 and 8 goals. In the 1981/82 season when he scored 15 goals he became the league’s top scorer along with Peter Herda. In 1983 and 1985 he again won the Footballer of the Year award.

In total, Vízek played 224 games for Dukla in the league, scoring 115 goals. He is thus a member of the league’s cannonballers club.

In the Czechoslovak league he played only for Dukla. In 1986, he made the coveted move abroad. Vízek played two seasons for the French Le Havre AC. In the first season he scored 7 goals, in the second four.

Another great achievement that Vízek likes to remember is his gold medal from the 1980 Olympics. He won a bronze medal at the 1980 Euros.

After finishing his active career, he played in the lower competitions, and built his own football pub in Čimice in the north of Prague. He also often comments on current football events.

Source:: FK Dukla Praha, Wikipedia