photo: FK Mladá Boleslav, with permission /David Pech
INTERVIEWS WITH COACHES: A few years ago he started in attack. David Pech has always been ranked among the great talents of Mladá Boleslav football, as confirmed by several coaches who guided him during his youth years. He is now among the greatest football talents in the league. And things are moving, Sparta and Slavia are said to be interested in the 20-year-old footballer.
At the same time, his arrival on the league scene was not at all famous.
David Pech experienced a horror situation for any footballer. When he joined the pros, he managed to play very little. At the Malta Cup in 2020, where Mladá Boleslav played against Brno, for example, there was a serious injury that bordered on a nightmare – torn ligaments in the ankle and a comminuted fracture… not only Václav Kadlec could tell.
All this at the age of eighteen, even then the jewel of Boleslav football peeked into the league.
By strength of will and character, he returned after a severe injury of several months. Already last season, he managed to play thirteen duels for Mlada Boleslav in the Fortuna league, and also scored his first league goal (May 6, 2022 against Olomouc).
Speed, endurance…
This year?
He already has sixteen league matches in the blue and white jersey. Currently, he is one of the key players of Pavel Hoftych, who values the young talent immensely: “Unfortunately, a serious ankle injury slowed him down, otherwise he would have already played more than thirty-six first league matches and scored more than two goals, because he is one of the few players who is also fast and persistent.”
Speed and endurance are among Pech’s great strengths. In Mladá Boleslav, he most often plays on the wing, at right back or wingback. The 20-year-old footballer also has a very good passing game and passing the ball. In the city of cars, cooperation with, for example, Marko Matějovský works very well in attempts to establish a gradual attack.
His tactical maturity and speed of decision-making are also unique for his age.
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However, the key player on the right side of Boleslav did not start football as a winger, let alone a fullback or halfback. In his youth, he was among the most goal-scoring attackers.
More than ten years ago, the coaching duo Milan Šíp and Petr Huf spotted him. Incidentally, the first mentioned is the former forward of Viktorka Plzeň, Petr Huf is a long-time coach with experience from the Chinese football academy. Both led youth categories in FKMB and also football players in the partner sports school ZŠ Pastelka.
They just went to Čelákovice as part of the McDonalds Cup for the regional finals of the aforementioned competition. Pech played here for the school of his native Brandýs nad Labem. It was there that he was spotted by the Boleslav coaches for the first time.
“I was immediately interested. He caught my attention as a striker by scoring goals. I said we have to take him immediately, I immediately went after him. At first he started commuting to Boleslav twice a week, then more and more. I knew right away that he was a talent. He was immediately integrated into the squad, immediately scoring goals. We had to get such a player, there was already interest in him at that time. Even his parents were a little afraid to let him go to Prague, so that he wouldn’t get bored there,” coach Milan Šíp recalled for PrahaIN.cz.
Coach Petr Huf adds: “He was already interesting there, a goal scorer.” He perceived and felt the game very well. We brought him to the younger pupils, where Milan Šíp had him for two years, then I had him for two years. A player with a difference, he scored around eighty, ninety goals a year in each category. As for speed, he still uses it now, but even before that he had a great gift and ability to make decisions. Make the right decisions and analyze situations very quickly. Huge foreign exchange, even then I felt that he was a player for big football.”
Huf adds that, even in the adult category, he observes Pech’s good assessment of when to go into a sprint attack and when, on the contrary, to slow down with the ball: “The perception of space and the game is at a very high level.”
David Pech in 2017 during a match for FKMB U-17. Back then, he played with players a year older, i.e. 2001. Source: Jiří Motyčka, with permission
It started in Leipzig
As a forward, Pech made wrinkles for dozens of central defenders of league teams.
His first steps towards the transformation into a winger took place during his internship at a big German club (2018), where he went together with Jiří Saňák, the then head coach of the Boleslav youth team.
“I did an internship with him at RB Leipzig, where we stayed for a week. It was there that we consulted for the first time whether a wing position would be better for him in adult football… The fact that he is now able to play halfback only corresponds to his character and passion for football. David loves him and has been working on himself for a long time, and every coach is lucky to have him on the team, because he is very perceptive and able to fulfill team principles,” said former assistant coach Jílek in Sparta for the PrahaIN.cz server
Saňák also added that even then the club felt that the player had the potential to play professional football.
From an internship at Die Rotten Bullen… Source: David Pech Archive, with permission
“He has more space there because he’s never been a dueling player, that he wants to fight someone. Rather, he was waiting for a dropped ball that he can pull from the side. Gradually, it drew him to those wing areas where he has the opportunity to go one-on-one, because that’s what he’s great at. He also has a decent left foot, but he has to work on his head game,” said coach Petr Huf about the transformation of Pecha’s position.
“It’s different in the pupil category, the players and football are developing. But with those shooters, who score one goal after another, they have it from above, so I think it might be a bit of a pity. But as I say, football evolves and in systems where halfbacks attack, it gets into it. One must be born with it. But we can see, for example, an excellent example in Jan Bořil, who they also turned into a great defender,” adds Milan Šíp, David Pech’s first-ever coach at FKMB.
Character
All the coaches who guided Pecha in the youth categories agree on one thing, and that is character. And not only him, but also the whole family, which has been supporting him for many years in his pursuit of his football dream.
“David has a great family, a great background. His father held him in great humility, in such respect, he never slept anywhere, left it up to him. He said he would go to school and it would be fine, he might not even play football. A huge advantage of the fact that he endured it and took it in stride at first glance. Really with humility and respect for everyone around him,” coach Huf is clear.
Jiří Saňák adds: „It is necessary to mention that David went through a serious injury and came back stronger. This also shapes his character.“
“Since he was a child, even from his family, he had it sorted out in his head. I also have reports that if he has time off, he immediately takes a balloon in Brandýs and goes kicking, that’s not much of a trend anymore either,” adds Milan Šíp.
Smart player
Petr Huf also emphasized that Pech asked him sophisticated and wise questions in the student categories: “He thought a lot about football. He was looking for an unusual and different solution. He was looking for new possibilities, how to overcome the opponent’s defense, how to improve his individual game performance. In all respects, he is the prototype of a player for big football. That is, under the circumstances that a trainer, coach or mentor works well with him.”
Outside of football: Even at school, Pech was not among the below average.
“During high school admissions, we fought over who would sit next to him so we could copy. School really went well for him,” one of his peers and former teammate told us.
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David Pech is undoubtedly one of the greatest talents in Czech football. Coach Suchopárek even called him to the national team. Mladá Boleslav will soon be small for him.
The coaches also confirm that he has all the prerequisites and abilities to move to a big Czech club. Backstage information is spreading that Sparta and Slavia are interested in the 20-year-old footballer.
However, wearing a stitched jersey would probably go against his beliefs.
Pech has always been a Spartan, he has been visiting Letna with a jersey and scarf since childhood. Cheering for Sparta on Saturday, playing for Mlada Boleslav on Sunday, that was what happened during his youth years. Just look at his social networks.
He could theoretically sign for a new club already during the winter break.
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