Pavel Černý the elder played for Hradec Králové, and later the guy with the nickname “rum” also played for Sparta Prague. His son played for Votrok for quite a few years, but when Hradec didn’t offer him a contract, he went to his big rival with a calm heart. “The second option was to go to the factory, so I chose football and went to Pardubice. I don’t regret it, I do what I like. Even my dad took it well,” chokes the footballer, who will complete his sixth year in the Pardubice jersey.
“At first, the plan was to get into the first league, and now we will be playing it for the third year. I would very much like to play in the new stadium in Pardubice. I didn’t get to see that in Hradec. But even there construction is already underway, so when it’s finished, the derby with Pardubice will definitely be sold out,” he is looking forward to, and he remembers how years ago in Hradec, they put his dad in a digger. They ceremoniously started the construction of the stadium… “And then the three nothing was done for years. But Hradec deserves a new stadium, now construction is underway and it looks beautiful,” he adds.
If Pardubice hadn’t called years ago, perhaps Černý jnójri would already be playing in the third league, where he flirted with Ústí nad Orlicí. “But then I told them that I needed a job for that. It wouldn’t be easy to come to the employment office and say that I played football for twenty years, so find me something,” he recalls of the time before his engagement in Pardubice. But he knows very well that the moment when he will leave the top competition will come.
“If Pardubice hadn’t won, I would have already switched to football. The funnier state would end. A job would come and I wouldn’t be afraid of it,” he explains in the role of a guest of the Fortuna bar. He doesn’t have to worry about the future, he says, a Pardubice club will offer him a place one day. “I studied business, management of sports clubs, that’s handy,” he smiles.
He lived in Hradec Králové for twenty-six years, but now lives with his family in the village of Rudlotice, not far from Lanškroun. He enjoys the village life and peace. “When I moved in, I was happy to eat with my hands, I wouldn’t put a nail in a painting. Now I mow the grass, I learned how to use a saw,” he boasts of his progress in the role of handyman and gardening.
But he also had a stint in distant Kazakhstan. It was said to be a great school of life. “I got to know a very different culture, you go back to the old communism there. There is no middle class, people are poor or rich, sometimes it was not a pretty sight. But I don’t regret being there,” he states and adds a few really bizarre incidents.
He was shocked, for example, when he saw a horse’s head lying under the table in the market, and horse sausages were being sold next to it. “Or maybe a ram was sacrificed before the season. In the morning before training, they cut it right on the pitch and after training the players went to eat it. But it didn’t help, we fell,” explains Černý, emphasizing that he didn’t taste the horse or the ram.
It also adds more spice about the matches. “I’m not sure if there was an entrance fee. I think anyone could have come. But the club didn’t even pay the organizer, everything is guarded there by the army. No one would take anything for granted, I wouldn’t want to end up in their prison,” states Černý, who also intercepted a few games during his career. “I wasn’t drawn to defense, where my grandfather played, but in the younger school years I even went in goal for a few games. But then I went back to the front,” he laughs.
He played 167 games for Hradec Králové, scored 27 goals and scored four assists, while in Pardubice he managed to score 23 goals in 150 games and assisted on another seventeen goals. “I wasn’t selfish, those must be bad statistics,” smiles a guy who has never finished a season with zero goals scored, with surprise on his face.
“I caught the second sap in Pardubice. But I don’t want to be the worst on the field, when I can’t catch up, I’ll pack up and go to the office,” he convinces. “But I won’t stop moving from day to day, I like to play badminton, tennis, netball. I’ll definitely continue playing somewhere,” adds Černý, which is now preparing for the next season. Pardubice’s goal is clear. Most importantly, don’t finish last. “It would be best to avoid the play out group. We know it will be difficult, but we will try,” he promises.
