PRAGUE – Although Ján Koller attracted attention at the beginning of his career with his gigantic figure rather than his football skills, over time he developed into a feared gunner.
The more than two-meter striker was also one of the mainstays of the Czech national team, with whom he played in one world and three European championships. A member of the League Gunners Club and with 55 goals, the best scorer of the Czech national team in history, he will celebrate his fiftieth birthday on March 30.
During his professional career, “Dino” went through Sparta, now defunct Lokeren, Anderlecht, Dortmund, Monaco, Nuremberg, Samara and Cannes. He scored a total of 180 goals in the highest competitions, won championship titles in the Czech Republic as well as in Belgium and Germany.
In 1999, he won the national Footballer of the Year poll, and a year later he was named the best player in the Belgian league.
Dino Koller’s unforgettable interview
“The rise in Belgium, the title in Dortmund, the first international goals and also participation in four championships, even though the world one ended with an injury. I also remember the first goal in the league for Sparta, followed by the famous stuttering conversation, which is still entertained on the Internet fans, or an unusual goalkeeping stop in a Dortmund jersey against Bayern,” the great header recalled the milestones of a successful career.
He made his debut in the national team at the age of 26 in February 1999 against Belgium and immediately scored the only goal of the match. He experienced his most famous moments at Euro 2004 in Portugal, where the sleepy ride of coach Karol Brückner’s men ended only with an unlucky defeat in the semi-finals against Greece.
After another European Championship in Austria and Switzerland, Koller closed his career with the national team, returning briefly in September 2009, when he made his final 91st start.
Koller’s goals in the national team
The native of Prague started his football career as a goalkeeper in South Bohemia’s Smetana Lhota. In 1994, Sparta unexpectedly took him out of the Milevsko division as a striker. Although Koller made his way into the first team, he did not make a big dent in it and after two years at Letná he left as a redundant player for the Belgian Lokeren. In the provincial club, his reputation as a hard-to-guard gunner began to emerge.
Leading European clubs suddenly became interested in the once ridiculed non-motor. In 1999, he transferred to Anderlecht, after another two seasons he moved to Borussia Dortmund, which together with his national team teammate Tomáš Rosicky, he helped to the championship title and the final participation in the UEFA Cup. Although he also scored goals in his other positions, his involvement in Monaco, Nuremberg or Samara was no longer so successful.
After a year and a half in Russia, Koller returned to his family in the south of France and at the end of his career wore the jersey of the third division Cannes, before in the summer of 2011, due to persistent health problems, he decided to say goodbye to big football. “I will miss football and big matches a lot, but my health has said enough. The body is already worn out a lot during my entire career.” he said then.
Three years ago, as the third player of his generation after Pavlov Nedvěd and Karl Poborský, he was accepted into the Czech Football Hall of Fame, last year the documentary film Jan Koller – The Story of an Ordinary Boy premiered. The fact that he did not forget to score goals even at the threshold of fifty is proven both in meetings for Smetana Lhota and during various exhibitions. In addition, the divorced father of daughters Hedviga and Kateřina is actively involved in hockey, tennis and padel.
Jan Koller – football giant
- Author: © List
- VIDEO: YouTube/dunican001, Czech you, Project Football
- Source: CTK
