Josef Masopust

Josef Masopust (born February 9, 1931 in Most) is a Czechoslovakian former football player and coach. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1962. In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of the Czech Republic by the Football Association of the Czech Republic as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. He played as midfielder and was an indispensable player for Czechoslovakia. [ [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/news/Kind=256/newsId=130150.html uefa.com ] ]

In 1962, Masopust led the Czechoslovakia team that reached the 1962 FIFA World Cup final, losing to Brazil. He scored in the Final and Czechoslovakia took the lead. Because of his performance at the World Cup Finals, he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1962. Overall, he was capped 63 times for his country, scoring ten goals (he also played in the 1958 FIFA World Cup). In Europe, he took Czechoslovakia to third place at the 1960 UEFA European Football Championship.

Masopust's first club was lowly Most, but FK Teplice signed him as a 19-year-old left-half and gave him his top-flight debut. Then, in 1952, he joined Dukla Praha. They won eight league championships. When he eventually went abroad in 1968, he helped Crossing Molenbeek win promotion to the Belgian first division as player-coach. His coaching career continued at Dukla, yet his greatest achievement on the bench was winning the Czech league with Zbrojovka Brno in 1978. Later, in the 1980s, he led the Czechoslovakian national football team before a spell in Indonesia.

He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

External links

* [http://www.praha6.cz/cestni_obcane/masopust.php Short biography] (in Czech)
* [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/history/associationweeks/association=58837/newsId=144731.html UEFA.com's article on Czech Republic's Golden Player]

References