What he was looking for, he found. The Baník Ostrava shooting legend got the job of his dreams

The indoor pool in Brušperk, a small town with four thousand inhabitants located at the foot of the Beskydy, offers three 25-meter swimming lanes, a children’s wading pool, a water slide, areas for rest and relaxation.

Among the employees, in addition, one of the personalities who wrote the history of Czechoslovak football. Ostrava forward Václav Daňek, who is the only Czech forward who can boast of scoring a bronze boot in the competition of European league gunners.

The idea is that from the position of a lifeguard he dazzles the beautiful guests with his athletic figure, although a look at his identity card reveals that he has six crosses. It’s not like that. “I’m a machinist,” he reveals his job title. And adds to its fulfillment. “I took care of the water heating, the technical conditions, the hygiene regulations are very strict,” he reveals what he does.

He easily dispelled doubts about whether he could handle professional work in this way. “I’m a chemist, I studied chemical engineering in Ostrava,” he says, proving that he didn’t just waste his teenage years on the playground.

He clashed with the director of the sports complex, run by his hometown of Brušperk, but among the school’s facilities, in 2015, when an indoor swimming pool was built next to the existing sports facilities. “The multi-purpose hall is well known, where the Jistebník futsal team plays championship matches, it is praised by handball players, but it can be rented and used by organizations and the public,” he said, attracting those fellow citizens who love sports. .

He found in Brušperk what he had been searching for so long in vain – happiness. “I can organize my time as I want, go to the matches I want, not always worry if I accidentally lose my job,” he recalls of the period when he was trying to establish himself as a coach of professional teams. “Two bad results are enough and I risk being dismissed, or the new owner suspends me if I don’t have a high contract, I still have,” he said, referring to the camps in Vítkovice, Banská Bystrica , Fulnek and Hlučín. “Now I am the master of my time and I am satisfied,” he boasted. “If I don’t want to, I don’t have to go with people,” he wouldn’t leave his machine kingdom.

Also, it’s close to family. “The wife at the school who runs the pool works as a maid,” she pointed out as a big advantage. He knows that he did not enjoy much during an active football career full of foreign teams.

Especially in the hustle and bustle of matches, national team meetings and football duties, it slipped through his fingers how quickly the children developed. “I only had a little time for them during my engagement in Austria, but Hon and Bára are coming in,” he sighs.

But grandchildren are no longer tricksters. “Bára and his wife live with us in Brušperk in the family house, their daughter, five-year-old Viktorka, just looks at what grandfather has done in the field,” he showed her the trophies he won, which he has on display at home.

However, he couldn’t polish the all-important, bronze football boot. “They haven’t given it to me yet, the French newspaper l’Équipe owes it to me, and I played in France in Le Havre in Normandy a year after it was shot,” Daněk said.

The competition went through a crisis, many players from the Eastern European bloc occupied it, and their opponents helped them to rest. “After all, Darko Pančev from Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, who won the gold at the time, surpassed me in the last five matches, Turkish striker Tanju Çolak from Galatasaray Istanbul took the silver,” pointed out the Czech gunner the grievance that remains. in his soul even though several years have passed.

Not surprisingly, in 1991 the competition was temporarily canceled before fairer standards were introduced, further protecting it from pranksters.

So the bronze treasure is missing from the private hall of fame, but for example the high cup for the top scorer of the Czechoslovak league for the year 1986/1987 was taken with a bang. “Viktorka can polish,” he willingly entrusted the important things to his granddaughter.

Even after the sword, however, Daňk’s family (perhaps even the football family) will not die. Anak Jan took care of the continuity, the five-year-old Vašík was brilliant. “He has talent, he’s smart,” the grandfather sees in him. “Another Václav Daněk,” he enthuses at the idea of ​​how the famous name will return to European turf. Two-year-old Andělka can join her cousin and polish her grandfather’s trophies. My son’s family doesn’t live far away, in Opava, they often visit their grandparents.

And the former gunner can also be seen on the field. “I was playing for the old guard of Baník, who didn’t live much for a while, but led by Petr Zajaroš, it woke up again,” he welcomes the opportunity to change clothes with former club colleagues in the same dressing room.

He also met his national team teammates in Football International Club matches, led by Štěpán Phillipp as manager. “Among them, I talk to Franta Štambacher, Jirka Ondra and others that I wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to meet,” said the native of Moravia. And he looks forward to the next match at Staré Jičín with pleasure.

He will no longer train the adults, but he wants to pass on his experience to the youth. “At the Baník academy, I conduct individual training sessions with forwards aged 16 to 18,” he said of his involvement. And he discovered a generational clash. “Their thinking reached one hundred and eighty degrees,” he observed. “Today, the player-coach will tell you, there are so many centers, it’s a headache for us. They don’t want this, then that,” he found a different approach.

“We can’t act like that,” he said, referring to his football years. “I went into the match with a freshly stitched six-centimeter scar on my head,” he recalled. “I was sixteen, the tournament was played on cinder blocks, it was raining, but I wouldn’t dare tell the coach that I wasn’t going because my head was sewn up,” he didn’t dare. fight back “We are different,” he emphasized.

This applies not only to moral qualities, but also to skills. “Today, men know the finesse, they study them on the Internet, but the first touch during processing is a problem for them,” said Daněk. “I am very grateful to all the coaches who guided me in Baník when I was young, and especially to coach Evžen Hadamczik, who brought me to adulthood,” he said, sending words of gratitude to the heavens. “But he worked hard for us. He took me and Verner Lička, who was six years older than me, already a top scorer, after training and spent thirty minutes centering the balls to us, we worked them on our chests, tried the all kinds of goal kicks,” he described. “Then they praised us – you’re amazing, nobody in the country has that kind of processing. Why not when we’ve done it probably a million times already!” he realized how effective this drill was.

However, he does not lead his charges in the same way. “I want help for men, I want to give them advice,” he reveals his creed. “There are those who are serious here and want to be first. For example, Matyáš Bitta, who plays for the under-19 team and is two years younger,” finds an individual who knows what football entails. “However, he has problems with his knees because he probably he grew up fast,” he regrets about his pupil’s certain health limitations.

However, not everyone knows. “There are also eighteen, who spoke to the manager and saw themselves at Juventus Turin or AC Milan. When I told them – you are doing wrong, come, let’s train, they were bragging because they were assured by people around them how good they are,” sighed Daněk.

He found his life and happiness in football. “I do what I want, what I want. If I want to play football, I go, I choose, I don’t have to,” he praises how it all came together.