Don’t tell the firing squad joke about the captain of Slavia

The jokes that spread on social networks in the spring were quite cruel.

“The convict stands in front of the firing squad and screams desperately: Tecl wants to shoot me!”

Slavist captain Stanislav Tecl threw away one chance after another. The ridicule came from all sides.

“Those jokes rather proved the wretched of their authors, not him,” defense of Milan Fukal, a participant in the 2000 European Championship, to his colleagues. “Tecl is a player of a top Czech club, he must know something,” he pointed out. .

Tecl himself gives the field to scoffers. He is in thunderous form, with eight goals he leads the table of top scorers, he is a solid part of the lineup of Slavia Prague, considered the best domestic team in recent years. And possibly, in connection with the plan to replenish the squad for the League of Nations duels, the national team shirt was ironed again.

Although the striker, who recently celebrated his thirty-second birthday, struggled of late and failed to score even in the most difficult situations, he did not lose the confidence of his teammates or coach Jindřich Trpišovský. “Standa is a heartthrob, there are only more players like that,” the coach appreciated his approach. “He is a big personality in the cabin, a real leader,” he emphasized.

He pointed out his non-contradiction, when he easily accepted the position of a substitute, or even a player who was not nominated for the match. Despite his undoubted former merits, he does not create an annoyance, on the contrary, he tries to encourage younger teammates and selflessly helps them.

And when he is released from the field, perhaps for a few minutes at the end of the game, he leaves his body and soul here. He doesn’t let go of anything, he fights for every ball. These values ​​are appreciated by experts, but in the eyes of fans, he is destroyed by wasted opportunities. He didn’t really score goals, he struggled. However, he did not show it. “He was always positive, full of optimism and determination,” described Tecla Trpišovský. “He is a rare character, a pure soul,” he pointed out.

Now Tecl is scoring one goal after another. However, whenever he appeared on television, even as the star of the match, he always talked about the result, the team, the team, and never boasted about his hits. And no one suspects him of false modesty.

The experienced 30-year-old has not matured in the human perspective, how worldly fame is field grass and the form of football is more changeable than the season of April. It’s in his genes. “I know both of her parents,” said Lumir Fikes, who discovered Tecla as a youth coach when she was a student at Sokol Herálec and later brought her to league club Vysočina Jihlava. “The mother is a very smiling woman, the father is light, it’s fun to talk with them about my son’s future,” he said. “He has a great background in that,” he added.

The son inherited everything from them. “Pure soul, upright character,” finds both comparisons as coach Trpišovský. “He’s built on honesty, he’s very honest, straightforward,” added another. “Kindness knocked him down directly until it harmed him,” he does not deny, however, that in a football environment where elbows are needed, a kind nature may not have contributed to talent development.

Undoubtedly Tecl has football skills, he went through the youth representative selections, it is clear that the Jihlava club, which has no ambition to assert itself on the European stage, will soon narrow for him.

In the spring of 2010, at the age of nineteen, he was approached by then champions Slavia Prague. “He came on a six-month loan with an option,” recalled Petr Doležal, the director of the Prague club at the time. The reinforcement boy from Vysočina did not make it. Tecl only started four matches, all of which the red and white lost.

He’s coming back. It was rumored that this was also due to the incipient Slavists’ financial difficulties, which ended after a few years in insolvency. “I cannot confirm that, I am no longer in leadership,” Doležal rejects these speculations. “I just know that the option is not low, about ten to twelve million, Tecl is still developing and Slavia’s staff is busy,” he recalled of the events.

There is no doubt about Tecla’s football talent, but some polishing is probably needed. “Stand amazed me with his speed, his drive towards the goal, his dynamism with his legs,” added experienced coach Milan Bokša, who led Tecla to the Czech Republic’s under-18 youth team. “But surely these types are accompanied by a very difficult speed at the end, they have not yet learned how to solve critical situations calmly,” he pointed out. “But even at that age he was a tremendous worker and clean of character,” he added to the others.

At the age of nineteen, he had not yet dazzled at Slavia, Jihlav’s hopes only gradually rose in 2013, when he strengthened Viktoria Plzeň, turning from a provincial club to the pride of Czech football, including repeatedly – repeat participation in the Champions League. During that time, Tecl also made six starts for the Czech national team.

Even in Pilsen, he proved his sociability, kindness just flowed to him. Whenever Viktoria suffered a heavy defeat, she was almost always the only one to explain the poor result to the press.

When he was traded along with striker Tomáš Wágner to Jablonec in 2015 for sharp midfielder Jan Kopic (another discovery of Jihlava youth coach Lumír Fikes), his career seemed to be on a downward spiral.

He worked in the North Bohemian club for two years, he did not break the league statistics. Therefore, the amount of 15 million crowns that Slavia Praha paid for him in 2017 seems like a waste to some. Although the oldest Czech club is already doing well economically, Chinese capital has once again moved it into the company of the powerful and rich.

However, Slavia is not buying a rabbit in a bag. “I looked closely at who he shot on the European scene,” revealed the club’s director at the time, Martin Krob. And he found interesting data: Manchester City, Olympique Lyon, SSC Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk. “A striker who can overcome the defenses of such advanced teams cannot be ordinary,” justified the expensive purchase.

Although Tecl has participated in winning four championship titles, it has only occasionally broken into the shooting competition, such as at the start of the 2020/2021 season with three hits in České Budějovice. He did not hit the continental stage. When he scored twice against Hradec Králové in February, thus ending almost five months of fasting, also caused by a long-term injury, he believed he would wake up again.

It didn’t happen, he became a symbol of the chance burner and a target of ridicule. His faithful work on the field – when he is trusted – and especially in the dressing room does not go unnoticed.

He didn’t become bitter, in fact he continued to prepare and hoped that everything would be fine. “Above all, however, coach Trpišovský kept him, it was important for Standa that he did not reject him,” pointed out the role of Slavist coach Fikes.

At the same time, the game that the Slavist coach demands from his team is not exactly welcome for Tecla. “Standa is a move player, he relies on breaks, speed and a long loop. When he has to work with all his strength and assert himself in a small space, it is more difficult for him,” explained Bokša. “Not Messi,” he found an apt simile.

The terrible period of cynicism is probably behind him. “He was very hurt,” coach Fikes defended his “son”. “But be careful – he’s a brawler,” reveals another side of his nature. “He knows how to kill himself. You’d be surprised what he can do!” the person who follows him from his first steps predicts more pleasant moments for him.