Ladislav Vízek

"But the rematch was all the nicer. In the winter we welcomed Stuttgart, it was freezing. The coach told us, 'Boys, go play,' he didn't force us into any tactics. We were 1-0 up at half-time and I scored a headed goal in the second half. I remember all the headed goals, they were few. It wasn't so much nice as it was important, it was 2-0, about five minutes after half time, we had 40 minutes for the third away goal. 3-0 was better than 4-1, as Míra Gajdůšek scored in Stuttgart for 4-1. We sensed a huge chance to break the game, we scored the third and fourth goals, the insurance. The match was in such euphoria, people were driving us, nobody will experience such an atmosphere at Dukla again. After the game we gave people our football shoes and shorts, socks, we went to the locker room in just our underpants. It was the best football experience for me, unfortunately in the fourth round it was the worst. We played Hertha Berlin, they were one level worse than Stuttgart. In the first quarter-final at Hertha we played 1-1, we still told ourselves that we left the draw for the spectators to come to Hertha in Prague. And we lost in extra time. That was again my worst football experience, we were three times better than Hertha, but luck, that bitch, laughed at us. So Bundesliga Stuttgart and Hertha was my best and worst football experience."

"I clearly remember the match at the conscript selection in Tábor, but the stars from the junior leagues and well-known names were divided between Dukla Prague and Tábor. Our match was the last one, and only the weakest boys from the villages were supposed to play. By coincidence, either the commander from Žatec fell asleep or forgot about it. We played the match, and it was my show—the game ended 11:2, we won, and I scored eight or nine goals. It was terribly easy, they were playing against me - you could almost say clogs. They couldn't even walk, they couldn't go to Dukla. They were trying to go somewhere lower and have a nice war. I showed up in the game and the commander said, 'Vízek, Vízek, Jiskra Nový Bydžov... and you know what? There was a truck from Žatec, he scored eight goals, I'll take a look at him. Throw him on the truck!' There were already a couple of guys there, so I went over to them, I didn't know where I was going. We drove from Tabor to Žatec, where we trained the next day. There were guys from Jablonec, from Teplice - Pepa Fišer, Senický, they had contact with the league. I found myself in the biggest football I've ever been in. During the first training session we played old - young and it rarely happens that the young win against the old hands and I beat them right away, I scored five or six goals. The coach saw that I was a talent, that I could do it, he said. He said, 'This is a player born here!' I didn't know about myself yet, I went into the dark. The championships started and I was the only one who got on from the rookies, we were playing third league. I know I jumped right into the lineup, before that, I had to do chores and peel a bag of potatoes. But when an important match was coming up, it was: 'Vízek, no potatoes for you, so you can get some sleep!' There were perks, training every day—the military service was quite nice. I played excellently there for a year. I was stronger than the others, and I didn't know how it was possible. I had no point of comparison, neither in Bydžov nor at the selection in Žatec. But I was apparently the best. And after a year in Žatec, I received my call-up order to Dukla Prague."

"I know that there was a strong hunters' association in Hlušice, and I have to remember, hunting was a really strong passion, the whole village were hunters. I know I used to go hunting with my dad, I'll tell you a story. Everybody had a dog, but I was standing next to my dad instead of the dog, so it's kind of funny. I can tell you I used to go hunting with him, I don't want to say I got physical there, but I was running. When you know what a winged pheasant is - to catch one, it was unbelievable. I ran at a pheasant, how many times I outran a dog as he was zigzagging. I say in jest that I caught the pheasant like my dad's dog on a hunt, I can't forget that. That was game back then! That was a whole different world, today you have one rabbit in the county. We had a cull, there were 500 rabbits. I digress, my dad used to take me hunting as his dog, I learned to run into the corners, that helped me too. They're details and they helped me in football, changes of direction and stuff. It's very funny. I said it once on the talk show that it was pretty important to me, I could zigzag, I could deceive with my body, which I learned from the pheasants."

"And that's an interesting question, too. The fact that we were going out, and I, if I ran away, I had an awful lot of money. What I had here was a pittance, and there... I know in West Germany near Stuttgart we had a bus, we bought jeans. Jeans were only in Germany, we bought records, music, it was great. And I know that I was one of the best ones in our country, and they stopped a Mercedes next to me and they said, 'We know you, Mr. Vízek, come on, don't get on the bus anymore, come and sit down, we'll take care of you, we're Eintracht Frankfurt, we'll give you money. We will take care of you, come and emigrate.'"

"So it was the Dukla Prague Army Centre for Top Sports. And there we were employed as soldiers, but we were practically only football players. And at that time we had - and I can say this - I know I had a starting salary of ten thousand crowns. But mind you, that was big money at that time. That was on our, I don't know inflation at all, what it would be today, but I know that we were well off with that salary. Plus of course bonuses for games, we were already playing for 600 crowns won at home plus I got into the national team. So I didn't lose financially at all because we played for the national team, there were bonuses there too. So I was just making a living from football. But one thing I have to say about it - I regret that I wasn't born before that time, because nowadays there are millions, hundreds of thousands, and in our country it was hundreds and only thousands. So it's a pity I missed that time. Now the money is in football, not then."

"Well, that can be summed up in one word - I had one hobby, and that was really football, because I learned it so well in Hlušice that right when I went to big football, they said I was a huge talent, that I knew how to handle a ball. And that was just by being with the ball every day. So you could say that I'm not that manually skilled or handy, that's my brother, he does everything for me too, he helps me. And you could almost say I can just kick a ball."