“Initially I thought the Derby County officials had come to deal with a legal transfer. They had already been discussing him for half a year. Since I scored the goal for Wales in the qualifiers for the European Championship in November 88. So great that he appeared not only in the soundtrack of the television program Goals, Points, Seconds in our home, but that he was also seen many times in England,” reminds Ivo Knoflíček in the next episode of “Kopaček na hříbík” that his story began a few months before he left the Slavic expedition in Hanover and received the label of emigrant.
The initiator and mastermind of the escape to the West, to whom he also seduced Kubík.
“At home it said we flew to England by helicopter, but we actually traveled to Calais by car. And they didn’t let us on the ferry there because we didn’t have passports. Robert Maxwell, a multi-millionaire whose name was originally Ján Ludvík Hoch and who owned not only Derby County but also the media giant Mirror Group, declared that he would take care of us. And Czech, because he came from Subcarpathian Rus. He even promised to fly to President Husák and arrange and legalize everything. He was actually in Prague, he met Husák, but who knows how it was then,” laughs Knoflíček years later, when he describes the anabasis he and Kubík underwent at the microphone of Sport.cz.
Photo: archive
Luboš Kubík and Ivo Knoflíček in the Derby County jersey, in which they never played an official match.Photo: archive
The truth is that Robert Maxwell took care of them. He accommodated them in Cadaques, Spain, where he had his summer residence and where his English friends the Guinnesses also stayed at the castle there. The lady was a painter, so Salvador Dalí, who also lived and created in the seaside town, used to visit her. She also introduced us to him. I even got a painting from him. But when we finally flew to England for Christmas, I left him in Spain saying that I don’t want such a mess,” sighs Knoflíček when he imagines what a painting by a famous Spanish painter would be worth today.
“I’ve been kicking all my life,” he doesn’t deny when talking about his football career and life’s vicissitudes.
| Ivo Knoflíček |
|---|
| Born: February 23, 1962 |
| Football career: 1970 – 1974 Baník Šardice 1974 – 1980 Zbrojovka Brno, 1980 – 1981 Sigma Olomouc, 1981 – 1982 Slavia Prague, 1982 – 1984 RH Cheb, 1984 – 1988 Slavia Prague, 1989 – 1991 St. Pauli, 1991 – 1992 Bochum, 1992 – 1993 Steyr, 1993 -1994 Švarc Benešov, 1994 – 1995 Slavia Prague, 1995 -Prušánky, 1996 – 1998 Dukla Příbram. |
| National team: 38 games/7 goals |
| Greatest achievements: quarter-finalist of the 1990 World Cup, top scorer of the Czechoslovak league 1984/1985 with 21 goals |
And that 60-year-old Ivo Knoflíček has been through something. He talks about a lot of this in the next episode of the program Football boots on a nail…
For example, how Robert Maxwell got them Bolivian passports for $35,000, with which they finally got to the Islands.
“What about me, I was tanned, had long hair and looked South American. But I was afraid of Luboš that, as a blond with blue eyes, they would certainly not consider him a Bolivian at the border and would not let him go to England.”
Photo: Vlastimil Vacek, Law
Slavia assistant coach Ivo Knoflíček.Photo: Vlastimil VacekThe law
Knoflíček also talks about what a shock it was for him when Kubík left him in England and returned to Prague. Especially when they told him that he could no longer stay on the Islands…
He went back to the continent, Turin’s Juventus were interested in him, he met Čestmír Vycpálek, also a famous player, who went to Italy in 1946 and played in the Old Lady’s jersey, later coached Juventus and led him to two titles.
But he also met Vycpálk’s nephew Zdeňek Zeman, who at the time coached Foggia and advanced with it from the third league to Serie A.
“He took me to a training camp in the Alps, where I even slept in a room with him. And there I experienced a typically Czech preparation with him. A week without a ball, it was just running around. What coach Trpišovský now practices in Slavia at the beginning of every training camp,” Ivo Knoflíček tells in Kopačky na hřebík and adds: “At the time, I didn’t even realize what famous personalities I was meeting. It all came to me years later.”
Photo: archive
Ivo Knoflíček returned to the Czechoslovak national team after the November coup and started with it at the 1990 World Championship in Italy.Photo: archive
Of course, there was talk of the fall of the communist regime in November 1989, the legalized engagement in the Bundesliga St. Pauli, as well as the first match against Moenchengladbach.
“Five minutes before the end I escaped Franto Straka, I scored a goal, we won 2:1 and at that moment I had a win with the fans. But then it was a mistake that after descending from St. Pauli left. And that I also left Bochum for Austrian Steyer. And I’m not even talking about when I left Slavia in 1995 and went to Prušánek. The very next season, the title was celebrated in Eden and I wasn’t there. And coach Cipro has been betraying me since the transfer, saying: Juventus wanted you and you’re going somewhere, home to Prušánek. I’ve been kicking all my life.”
Photo: Vlastimil Vacek, Law
Legends of Slavia Prague (from left): Miroslav Beránek, Ivo Knoflíček, Pavel Řehák and Pavel Kuka during the ceremonial takeover of the Eden stadium.Photo: Vlastimil VacekThe law
There was a lot that Ivo Knoflíček recalled at the Sportu.cz microphone. Of course, the 1990 World Championship in Italy was also discussed, and the rapidly approaching World Championship in Qatar was discussed. And about the current Slavia, where he has been working as an assistant in the junior team for sixteen years, or in reserve, of course.
The next part of Kopaček na hříběku is simply stuffed with memories and experiences of the legendary Slavist striker, whose portrait adorns the front of the stadium in Eden. Therefore, listen to Knoflíček’s story, it is definitely worth it.
