At that time, his long curls did not yet flow from behind his helmet, his face was protected by a full-face cover, and given that the Czechoslovak Republic had the epithet socialist at the time, instead of the now iconic number 68, he had fifteen on his jersey. He was sixteen, coach Eduard Novák took him from the youth team to the A team and on September 13, 1988, he played for the first time. Pilsen came to Kladno then and Jágr got the opportunity in the fourth attack alongside Josef Zajíc and David Čermák, who much later trained Jágr himself in Kladno.
Pilsen won 6:3, Miloslav Hořava, today’s coach of Sparta, scored for the home team, Milan Volák, Josef Řezníček (later head of the extra league), Jiří Kučera and Jiří Koreis (father of ice hockey player and TV commentator Jakub) scored for Pilsen.
By the way, already in the summer training, Jágr “enjoyed” a classic forek from the greasers, who showed him a free place in the cabin where he should sit. The young man made himself comfortable there before Milan Nový, the gunner and big boss, came into the dressing room. “I look at him and he says: Hello, Mr. Novy, I’m Jarda. So I said to him: Hello Jardo, you are sitting in my place. Can you please sit somewhere else?’
Josef Zajíc recalled the beginnings of his famous teammate as follows: “We were playing in Litvínov, the third period had passed and Jarda took out some bread with lard and started eating it during the break. Coach Novák came, is he joking? So he wrapped it up again, but then scored a goal or two.”
If we are talking about goals, then Jágr got his league debut three weeks after his debut. It happened on October 4, 1988 in a match against Pardubice, which was caught by none other than Dominik Hašek.
Even after 35 years, Jagr remains an active player and is expected to make a splash during the upcoming season. However, his Kladno teammate Tomáš Plekanec told Sport.cz: “He trains, he goes on the ice in his gear. But Jarda is the owner, player and coach. During the summer, he is the owner, now he is the coach, and when he decides, he will become a player again.”
Plekanec also answered in the Sport.cz survey whether he knew when Jaromír Jágr made his debut in the league. You can watch what he and players from other clubs answered in the video at the top of the text.
2023-09-13 13:58:11
#years #Jágr #debuted #league #break #bread #lard #recalls #teammate #Sport.cz
