When I’m a famous footballer, I’ll help people, said thwarted talent Václav Sládek, because he lacked support himself

Memories are our engine, whether the events were joyful or less or even sad.

Jan Černota, who tells a sad story of a Czech talent wasted, knows:: “I have a nice memory of Florian Thauvin, when I was in Marseille with Vasek Sladek for a training session, on the third day in the evening the coach came to our hotel, brought Vasek Thauvin’s threadbare jersey and said

I was amazed, my heart stopped at that moment. I don’t know exactly what a moment like that does to the plans and dreams of a 16-year-old talent. But the following results of Vasek clearly showed it, he did his best, he was tuned and ready to soar.

Vaclav Sladek was an outstanding talent, a year and a half in the intensive care of 121 ELITE Sports. An unreadable thug on the pitch, a dancer on the ball, a beast in front of the goalkeeper! He was not lucky to have the support of his family, we literally took him into care at the age of 15, he had the same conditions as his own son – a top athlete.

In Brandýs nad Labem he was psychologically devastated and sportingly neglected, we managed to hand him over at the last second to Humpolec, favourably managed by Mr Dubno. And when Vasek secured the Academy’s defeat against the national team in Jihlava, the latter immediately asked for him and took him into their care, beating Watford (6-0), Slovan Bratislava (2-1), etc. “Wow, I’ve been going to football here for fifty years, but I’ve never seen this before.”

In the youth category of Humpolec U19, coach Lukáš Staněk found Vasek again and started to develop him.

In Humpolec they coped with the national team

Coach A.F.C. “I am proud of my team.”

In the 14th round of the youth division D the leading team of the table – Vysočina Jihlava reserve visited Humpolec grass. The team of Jihlava has lost only 2 points in the competition so far and that was for a draw. In addition, the team came to Humpolec with a very strong line-up, as the league’s youth played their match on Friday. The starting line-up also included some youth players.

Humpoleč players did not have to look for much motivation for this match. In their midst they also have players who have passed through the youth categories of Jihlava, for the others it was the very fact that it is a duel with the leader of the competition that was a challenge.

The visitors entered the match better. And already in the 8th minute, the visiting Pavlas scored with a cross shot in the penalty area – 0::1. However, the home team woke up from this moment and they finally got into the game. They were dangerous especially on the flanks. They created several corner kicks.

The equaliser came after about half an hour of play. Sladek sent Kejval out on the right, he served the ball to Havel on a golden platter and he had no problem hanging it on the back post – 1::1. As the end of the opening part of the game approached, the visitors took the lead again and badly pinned Humpolecké to their own penalty area. However, they failed to score a goal.

After the change of sides, the visitors followed up the last minutes of the previous part. They created pressure and forced the home players to make mistakes. In 58´ they played a standard situation from the left, which was again crossed by Pavlas and sent Jihlava into the lead – 1::2.

Humpolets patiently leveled the field and slowly became calmer. Again they made themselves known with a few standards. In the 67th minute, captain Svoboda had a great opportunity after the action of Jirák and Havel. However, Doležal pushed his shot onto the bar. 5 minutes later the captain fixed his taste. Sladek found him in the penalty area from the right side after a quick break, Svoboda stuck the ball into the defender’s back and from the level of the penalty kick he shot through Doležal – 2::2.

From that moment on, there were busy moments on both sides. Venca Sladek scored a goal and it was literally excellent. He ran down the right side and from an angle he beat the helpless Dolezal with a long ball in the style of Poborský – 3::2.

That was the last 10 minutes of the match. Jihlava threw all their strength into the attack. A hard shot from the border of the penalty area was pushed away by Matějka with his fingertips. He solved the situation in the face of the attacker with a perfectly timed run, Nováček’s header narrowly missed the home team’s goal.

The decision was made by fresh forces. Horák again squeezed down the right side and advanced from the side to Doležal, but he noticed the better positioned Vasicek, who complemented the counterattack perfectly, and he uncompromisingly hung behind the bar – 4::2.

Venc’s quality logically went up. Then followed week-long internships abroad, a week in the French league club Martigues (Championnate National N) and in its club satellites R1, in the Academy of AC Beziérs and in the Italian Novara, Serie C. Vasek was still only 17 years old and there was no hurry, he managed everything to perfection, the clubs did not hide their interest in this talent, but Vasek wanted to train at home, in Jihlava, under the guidance of coach Kamil Průša he felt the best.

“Not even Rosický had the kind of care that Vasek had.”

Mr. Černota again describes the following development:

After the dismissal of the head of the Jihlava Academy, Kučera, Vasek could not continue in Jihlava, but a quality player always leads.

The winter training in Varnsdorf followed, the owner Gabriel gave Vašek an opportunity and the recommendation of the coach Kamil Průša from Jihlava was clear, he stood behind the quality of his ward and recommended the talent. Even the training compensations Mr. Gabriel was willing to accept.

In Varnsdorf, they insensitively put the seventeen-year-old cadet under the full training load of his more experienced adult players from the first day. Three weeks without the necessary conversation with the young talent, a difficult period without recovery. And a serious injury to the fine-tuned Sladek didn’t take long.

Torn knee ligaments and a fractured meniscus were the logical consequence of the young player’s senseless overeagerness. He is not the only one who was discarded by the Czech coach’s layman hands. Yes, lives are at stake.

After recovery and regeneration, Vasek never returned to Czech professional football. He played in Austria and went on to play with our little league team Golden Ideal Club La Plate, helping our G.I.C La Plate win the Hanspaul League. The knee is not 100%, the young talent found a job and Czech football was left in tears.