Do you still remember the twenty-year-old extraleague match with Znojmo, in which Sparta celebrated 100 years?
Very good. In autumn 2003, I broke my ankle in Vsetín and after three months I returned on January 10 for the match against Znojmo. So we lost 1:5. On the 110th anniversary of the foundation, it was my last playing season in Sparta, which I consider to be my life. And now, after ten years, another match awaits me, even though I am already working as a manager.
Logically, as the best cannoneer in Spartan history, you cannot be missing on the ice…
At the same time, when I came to Sparta twenty years ago at the age of twenty-nine, I took it as the fact that at the end of my career I wanted to achieve team success.
With two titles, you accomplished it…
I’m happy with how it turned out. Just like I’m Sparta’s best scorer in history. Some Spartans probably don’t like it, they considered me a Kladeňák. (Laughs).
Photo: Vlastimil Vacek, Law
Petr Ton on the Sparta switchboard.
Didn’t you wonder if it would be possible to somehow arrange for you to play at the December exhibition with your son Petr, who played for the Spartan junior team and now plays in the first league for Litoměřice?
I didn’t think about that. My friends and I were joking about whether it wouldn’t be good to start training and have a match with him for Litoměřice.
Would that appeal to you?
When I saw myself on the ice three weeks ago during the Battle of Legends at the celebrations of 100 years of Pardubice hockey, I immediately put an end to this initial idea. I still felt great at forty-five, but then every year you know it terribly. Age cannot be stopped.
Příklep with František Výborný and his son DavidVideo: Sport.cz
Are you happy that Holešovice will be teeming with stars in both teams?
They are all legends. But it will only have a level for people who don’t watch hockey. As former players, we are used to a certain standard. The head still wants to, but the body no longer listens. The summer before last, I went to the ice without a single training session at the farewell of the famous players Jarda Bednář and Marek Tomica to their careers. It was beautiful, the stadium in Eden was sold out, but I didn’t enjoy it.
Why? Because of the missing physique?
That’s not the point. We were used to what we could do with the puck, but now suddenly it was no longer possible.
Now, for Sparta in the legendary Holešovice, will you enjoy it?
This will be something completely different for me! Precisely because of Holešovice. In 1992, I scored my first two goals there for Kladno in the federal league. Then I spent eleven years in Holešovice. For me, the hall has a great emotional charm and charge. That’s also why I’ve been going to the ice a few times a week since September to play hockey to somehow keep myself going.
