“I didn’t play checkers, I didn’t play poker either, because I don’t know how, I really only played live roulette. And all this because I was alone in St. Petersburg, I had nothing to do in the evenings, and that’s why I started with the casino,” Vlastimil Petržela returns to the coaching engagement in Russia, where he lived for almost five years, in the program Kopačky na hříbíku.
Vlastimil PetrželaFootball career: 1960 – 1970 Sokol Kralice na Hané, 1970 – 1974 OP Prostějov, 1974 – 1976 Zbrojovka Brno, 1977 – 1978 Železárny Prostějov, 1978 – 1980 Sigma Olomouc, 1981 RH Cheb, 1982 – 1985 Slavia Praha.Leagues starts and goals: 116/36 Representational starts and goals: 2/0 Coaching career: 1986 – 1992 Slavia Prague, 1992 – 1995 Slovan Liberec, 1996 Sparta Prague, 1996 – 2002 Bohemians Prague, 2002 FK Mladá Boleslav, 2002 – 2006 Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia), 2006 – 2 007 Sigma Olomouc, 2007-2008 Neftči Baku (Azerbaijan), 2009 – 2010 Viktoria Žižkov, 2010 – 1012 Zemplín Michalovce, 2014 – 2015 Graffin Vlašim, 2016 – 2017 Baník Ostrava, 2018 Fastav Zlín. Greatest achievements: with Zenit St. Petersburg, victory in the Russian League cup 2003, second and third place in the Russian league with Zenit St. Petersburg in 2003 and 2004, participation in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup with Zenit St. Petersburg in 2006, victory in the ČMFS Cup with Sparta in 1996, promotion to the league with Liberec (1993) and Bohemians (1999)
Extremely successful, because he finished second and third in the Russian top flight with Zenit St. Petersburg, which until then was constantly at the bottom of the league, won the League Cup with him and advanced to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup.
And therefore the millions poured in even more and there was therefore something to spend.
Photo: Photobank Profimedia
Coach Vlastimil Petržela let his emotions flow in the match against Zenit St. Petersburg.
“I didn’t spend all night in the casino, as was claimed and written. I was there for an hour or two because I knew I had to be fit in the morning. At first, the manager made appointments for me there, then my assistant Vláď Borovička brought me to the casino, who knew how to walk in it, in the end I was able to manage on my own. In St. Petersburg, as well as in Monte Carlo or Las Vegas, in Athens and in Istanbul. But if I didn’t have at least two million in my pocket, I didn’t go to roulette. That’s what Míra Pelta taught me, from whom I knew that you can’t win in the casino without big money,” Vlastimil Petržela spoke honestly in front of the microphone of Sportu.cz the day before the celebration of the seventies on Thursday.
Of course, he remembered not only St. Petersburg and gambling, which he fell into in the city on the Neva, and from which he was treated and cured after returning home.
“Professor Nešpor and I talked about it many times, he often asked me why I let myself get carried away. To this day, I don’t know… It was a crazy joy that intoxicates and takes a person away,” Petržela searched and searched for an answer as to why the fickle ball attracted him so much and destroyed his life.
Photo: Photobank Profimedia
Coach Vlastimil Petržela has many memories of his time at Zenit St. Petersburg.
Even the pills destroyed him after returning to the Czech Republic.
“I was addicted to them, when I didn’t have them, I got sick. I thought I was going to die, but as soon as I chewed the powder I was fine again. Just another mess in my life, which started with stomach pains. After an examination at IKEM, they told me that my stomach was fine and that it was a psychological problem. They prescribed me Neurol and that’s how it started. And when a panic attack was added to that, there was no choice but to undergo treatment. First a month in Liberec, then a quarter of a year in Bohnice. I went through it and today, fortunately, everything is behind me,” Vlastimil Petržela does not hide from the world the martyrdom of his life, which destroyed, devastated and ruined him.
Photo: Břetislav Kostka
Toast of coach Vlastimil Petržela (right) with assistant Antonín Panenko after Bohemians’ promotion to the top league.
That’s also why it was as if he was showered with living water when the program Kopačky na hříběku reminisced about his playing career, the beginnings in Prostějov and Olomouc, engagement in Brno, military service in Cheb or transfer to Slavia.
Did you know, for example, that at the end of the war, the commanders of Cheb Red Star hid him in Mariánské Lázně in the naive idea that this would prevent him from negotiating a transfer with Ostrava, Sparta and Slavia? That he went to Eden in Prague because of coach Máčal, even though Sparta offered him a much higher salary and much better conditions than Slavia?
The jubilant Vlastimil Petržela talks openly about this, as well as describes how it was with the arrival of the Czech-American Boris Korbel in Eden.
“I brought him there because Korbel knew a boy who had lived in America for some time and I had already played with him in Cholupice as Slavia’s coach. That’s why I mediated a meeting between Korbel and the then chairman of Slavia Epstein at the Palace Hotel, where the two spat,” reveals the background of the transaction, after which the millionaire Korbel ended up going to Slavia instead of Sparta.
“But also with Václav Ježek,” Petržela added, and in our program he also talked about how he and coach Ježek got along, why they broke up and how he finally said goodbye to Slavia.
Photo: Hynek Preisler, Sport.cz
Former football coach Vlastimil Petržela.
But he also talked about coaching positions in Liberec and Bohemians, the clubs he brought into the league and which he still fondly remembers.
Just an episode crammed full of interesting memories and experiences that are worth listening to.
Especially when Vlastimil Petržela did not avoid reminiscences about his engagement in St. Petersburg and what he experienced there.
Even at a joint dinner with the Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko and Vladimir Putin in the Moscow restaurant of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the conversation came up. As well as the relationships and ties behind the scenes of Russian football, on which Petržela broke his neck.
Photo: Zdeněk Pavlis
He celebrated his seventieth birthday on Thursday, yet Vlastimil Petržela continues to train. In the second league Vlašimi, he works with the youth team.
And on top of that, an open confession about gambling, casinos and tens and tens of millions, which he was deprived of by roulette and a fickle bouncing ball. Testimony about the Neurol he was addicted to. About treatment in Bohnice. But also the confession of a 70-year-old man who overcame the aforementioned life’s martyrdom and now lives as a satisfied and balanced pensioner in Vlašim, where he trains football teenagers.
This is all brought to you by the next episode of Kickers on the Nail, which you should definitely listen to. Definitely worth it.
