Josef Masopust

Bobby Moore (left) vs. Masopust at the 1963 England v Rest of the World football match Josef Masopust (9 February 1931 – 29 June 2015) was a Czech football player and coach. He played as midfielder and was a key player for Czechoslovakia, helping them reach the 1962 FIFA World Cup Final. He was capped 63 times, scoring ten goals for his national team.

He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1962. In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, Masopust was selected as his country's Golden Player by the Football Association of the Czech Republic as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. He is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time.

Life Masopust was born on 9 February 1931 in Střimice (today non-existent village in the territory of Most).

Club career Masopust's first club was lowly ZSJ Uhlomost Most, but ZSJ Technomat Teplice (renamed to ZSJ Vodotechna Teplice in 1951) signed him as a 19-year-old left-half and gave him his top-flight debut. Then, in 1952, he joined a Czechoslovak Armed Forces football club under name of ATK Praha (renamed to ÚDA Praha in 1953 and to Dukla Prague in winter 1956). Masopust won eight league championships and three national cups with Dukla. He subsequently had a spell in Indonesia where he coached their national Olympic football team with Milan Bokša between 1988 and 1991. Because of his performance at the World Cup Finals, he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1962.

Having represented the Rest of the World team against England in 1963, Masopust was invited to play for a European International XI in the farewell match for Stanley Matthews, when the 50-year-old Matthews retired from football in 1965.

Masopust was in a similar mould to that of the Hungarian József Bozsik; a workhorse of his team, who also created attacking opportunities. He had excellent ball control, which he utilised for both recovering the ball in defence and dribbling past opponents.

Career statistics

International

Scores and results list Czechoslovakia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Masopust goal. Czechoslovak First League: 1953, 1956, 1957–58, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66 Czechoslovak Cup: 1960–61, 1964–65, 1965–66 International Soccer League: 1961 American Challenge Cup: 1962, 1963, 1964

Czechoslovakia FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 1962 ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1962 Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year: 1966 UEFA Czech Golden Player: 2003