Rudolf Skácel

Football player infobox
playername = Rudolf Skácel


fullname = Rudolf Skácel
nickname = Rudi
height = height|m=1.78
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1979|7|17
cityofbirth = Trutnov
countryofbirth = Czechoslovakia
currentclub = Southampton
clubnumber = 7
position = Midfielder
youthyears = 1985–1992
1992–1999
youthclubs = FK Trutnov
FC Hradec Králové
years = 1999–2002
2002–2003
2003–2005
2004–2005
2005–2006
2006–
2008
clubs = FC Hradec Králové
Slavia Prague
Olympique de Marseille
→ Panathinaikos (loan)
→ Hearts (loan)
Southampton → Hertha BSC Berlin (loan)
caps(goals) = 37 0(8)
45 (13)
20 0(1)
16 0(1)
35 (16)
53 0(4)
016 0(2)
nationalyears = 2001–2002
2003–
nationalteam = Czech Republic U21
Czech Republic
nationalcaps(goals) = 09 0(1)
05 0(1)
pcupdate = 13 March 2008
ntupdate = 16:57, 07 June 2008 (UTC)

Rudolf "Rudi" Skácel (pronounced "Skatsel"; born July 17 1979) is a professional footballer who has been capped at international level by the Czech Republic. He is a left sided midfield player currently playing for Southampton.

Playing career

Czech Republic

Skácel was born in Trutnov and began his career with Czech club FC Hradec Králové, making his senior debut in 1999 where Skácel helped Hradec gain promotion back to the Czech top flight. It wasn't long before Skácel's skills were noticed by one of the big Prague clubs and during the 2001-02 season he was signed by SK Slavia Praha. His most memorable moment at Slavia came in May 2002 when he helped his team defeat Sparta Prague in the Czech Cup Final. It was also in the summer of 2002 that Skácel helped the Czech Republic win the European Under-21 Football Championship.

After another successful season, 2002-03, where Skácel played in the UEFA Cup and also helped Slavia finish second in the Czech league his skills were noticed by French club Olympique de Marseille manager Alain Perrin.

Olympique de Marseille

In August 2003 Marseille concluded a deal [cite web | url = http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bq/Qfbl-fra-cze-skacel.R62-_DaV.html
title = Marseille sign Skacel | date = 2003-08-31 | publisher = clari.net | accessdate = 2008-03-13] to sign Skacel for a fee of 2.5 million Euros.

After a moderate first season at Marseille, Skácel found himself out of favour after Perrin was sacked. This led to Skácel being loaned out to Greek club Panathinaikos with an option of a permanent deal. Skácel enjoyed a successful spell at the club, scoring 5 goals and playing in the UEFA Champions League.

Heart of Midlothian

After Panathinaikos didn't take up their option to buy Skácel Heart of Midlothian manager George Burley stepped in with an offer to take him on a seasons loan from Marseille. In July 2005 the deal was concluded to take Skácel to Hearts on a seasons loan with the option of a permanent deal. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4694147.stm | title = Hearts complete capture of Skacel | date = 2005-07-19 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13]

The start of the 2005-06 could not have gone any better for Skácel or Hearts as they won the first seven league games with Skácel scoring in each of them to set a Scottish Premier League record. Skácel's home debut was especially sweet, a 4-0 victory over Hearts' great city rivals Hibernian at Tynecastle in which he opened the scoring. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/4748451.stm | title = Hearts 4-0 Hibernian | date = 2005-08-07 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13] This was to be a common sight for the Hearts fans as Skácel went on to score an impressive 16 goals over the season and also scored the Hearts goal in the Scottish Cup final victory over Gretna. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_cups/4764967.stm | title = Hearts 1-1 Gretna (4-2 on pens) | date = 2006-05-13 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13]

Despite announcing that the club had signed Skácel on a permanent deal, [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4960778.stm | title = Hearts say Skacel is staying on | date = 2006-05-02 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13] Skacel's celebration and post match comments after the Cup Final suggested that he had played his last game for the club. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4770601.stm | title = Skacel bids farewell | date = 2006-05-14 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13] Since Skacel's admission that he wanted to leave Tynecastle his status with the Hearts fans had soured slightly as he appeared to have his heart set on leaving. On 3 July 2006 it was revealed that Skácel and Andy Webster had failed to join up with the squad for pre-season training prompting rumours of Skacel's departure.

Skácel will always be remembered by Hearts fans for his great contribution to the second place finish and the Scottish Cup victory. Although his form tailed off towards the end of the season there can be no doubting his extensive contribution to the team. However opposition fans point to accusations of diving [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4861978.stm | title = Skacel ready to alter behaviour | date = 2006-03-30 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13] and also suggestions that he spat at Celtic captain Neil Lennon [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4962096.stm | title = Lennon and Skacel row over spit | date = 2006-05-01 | publisher = BBC Sport | accessdate = 2008-03-13] . Although these accusations were reported to the Scottish Football Association they were not pursued.

outhampton

On 29 July 2006 Skácel joined Southampton for £1.6 million and linked up again with former Hearts manager George Burley. Despite not being able to recreate the form he managed at Hearts under George Burley, he has still impressed, either on the left wing or behind the strikers. Recently, he has been playing out of position at left back, at first to the disagreement of fans. Though he is now an ideal player at left back at the club, since the departure of Gareth Bale to Tottenham Hotspur. He has proved himself an exciting player down the left wing, and scored a stunning goal from 25 yards in the 3–2 victory of West Bromwich Albion on 6 October 2007.

Hertha BSC Berlin

On January 31, 2008 Skácel moved to Hertha BSC Berlin on loan until the end of the season. [cite news|url=http://goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=569137|title=Hertha snap up Skacel|publisher=Goal.com|date=31 January 2008|accessdate =2008-03-13] The loan signing is with a view to a permanent transfer. Skacel had requested the move to boost his chances of representing his country on the international scene. Southampton acting chief executive Lee Hoos was quoted as saying: "The Czech national manager views the Championship very much as a second tier league - even though it is the fifth most popular in Europe. Rudi felt he would not get a look in unless he was playing in a top division". [cite web |url=http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=9672|title=Skacel out on loan|accessdate=2008-02-01 |date=1 February 2008 |work=www.saintsfc.co.uk] Skacel succeeded in making the Euro 2008 squad, due to injury to Daniel Pudil, but was an unused substitute in all three of their games as the Czechs crashed out at the group stages.

He returned to Southampton for the start of the 2008–09 season.

References

External links

* [http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/team/?page_id=6587&player_id=104 Rudolf Skácel player profile] at saintsfc.co.uk
*soccerbase|id=34289|name=Rudolf Skácel
* [http://www.fotbal.cz/c/nat/players/viewstat.asp?name=SkacelRudolf National team statistics] at official Czech FA site
* [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/players/skacelrudi.html Profile] at [http://www.londonhearts.com londonhearts.com]