Růžička Returns: Coaching Last-Place Slav Hockey

Vladimír Růžička | Photo: Vít Trubička, Facebook HC Slovan Ústí nad Labem

He edited an exhibition in Vienna on Saturday, he has a new job from Tuesday. Vladimír Růžička is fully returning to the coaching industry, for the second time in his career he will take on second-league Ústí nad Labem. During the fall, he passed on his knowledge as a sports consultant in Slovan, but after a while he agreed to move to the alternate.

He can’t last long without hockey, that’s widely known about him. Even though Růžička was officially out of work after being fired from Most last November, he continued to dabble in his beloved sport.

A few months before, very wild speculations connected his name with the extra-league Pardubice, but for once they made an exception and denied the alleged courtship with the former national team strategist.

In the summer, rumors leaked that Růžička was considering a job in the second Italian league. He should have had an offer on the table for the position of head coach, as well as the sports director of Aosta, located in the northwest.

In the end, however, there was only negotiation.

And so the famous figure of Czech hockey will appear in the 2nd league after a hiatus of more than a year. He will step up to the helm after a recent split with popular coach Miroslav Mach, Slovan was coached by Jan Čaloun and Jaroslav Linet in the meantime.

“By engaging Vladimír Růžička, we want to make it clear that we are still not giving up on the declared sporting goal. This means saving the second league membership,” Linet’s manager outlines.

The imaginary light at the end of the tunnel is still not flickering by any chance: Ústí nad Labem has collected only six points in 22 rounds, so they are struggling with an abysmal loss at the bottom of the second league group West. On Saturday, in addition, in the rescue party with Kadání, 1:9 exploded.

Which was the last straw for the club’s management and thus persuaded the captain of the Olympic champions from Nagano to brush up on the coaching craft, as opposed to the original intention.

“By engaging Vladimír Růžička, we want to show that we are still not giving up on the declared sports goal.”

The biography of the sixty-two-year-old Růžička is probably known to every hockey fan. “He is the holder of a gold medal from the World Cup in Prague 1985. In his coaching career with the national team, he achieved the greatest success at the world championships in Vienna 2005 and Cologne 2010, where his wards won gold medals. He has been a member of the Czech Hockey Hall of Fame since 2008 and a member of the Club of Legends of the Czech Extraliga since 2024,” Slovan introduces him.

However, he has been waiting quite a long time for a successful stay. In the past five years, he worked with Hradec Králové, Kadaní, Litvínov, Slovan Bratislava and Most.