Petr Čech

Petr Čech was born on 20 May 1982 in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia and plays for the Czech Republic national team and Chelsea F.C. as a goalkeeper.

Čech started playing football for the Viktoria Plzeň youth team as a halfback. At the age of 10 Petr got the leg fracture, which influenced his decision to move to the goalkeeper position.

In 1999, when he was 17, Petr Čech made his first professional appearance for FK Chmel Blšany. Petr also played for Sparta Prague, Stade Rennes and in January 2004 joined Chelsea F.C.

Čech didn’t become the number one goalkeeper of Chelsea at once as Carlo Cudicini was playing for the club at that time. Cudicini was considered the best Premier League goalkeeper, but after a number of Carlo’s serious mistakes Petr had understudied him. In 2005 Čech had a run of 1,025 minutes without conceding a goal and broke the record of legendary Peter Schmeichel.

Petr’s goalkeeper career was under threat after a depressed skull fracture, but he managed to overcome it, returned to his team before the term set by doctors and continued to show perfect results. In order to avoid further traumas Čech wears a special headguard - the peculiarity that bound him with a ‘Tankman’ nickname.

Nowadays Petr Čech is one of the top goalkeepers in the modern football. Petr has a whole store of honours, including 27 personal awards, 10 club trophies for Chelsea and 1 national prize for the Chech Republic football team.