Milan Petržela

Milan Petržela (born 19 June 1983) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a winger. With more than 530 appearances, he holds the record for the number of appearances in the Czech First League. He played for the Czech Republic national team, making 19 appearances.

Career Petržela grew up in the South Moravian village Hoštice-Heroltice.

In August 2003 he moved to 1. FC Slovácko of the Czech First League. There he played 70 games in three years and in the summer of 2006 he was bought by Sparta Prague. They however loaned him out to FK Jablonec where he made 24 appearances. He subsequently signed with Viktoria Plzeň, where he won the Czech Cup in 2010 and the Czech First League in 2011.

After an unsuccessful season with FC Augsburg, Petržela returned to Viktoria Plzeň in June 2013.

After leaving Viktoria Plzeň, Petržela returned to Slovácko in the summer of 2019, where he complimented the young staff brilliantly with his experience.

On 18 May 2022, Petržela started for Slovácko in the 2021–22 Czech Cup final, defeating Sparta Prague 3–1. Thanks to winning the cup, Slovácko qualified for the preliminary round of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League, where they lost to Fenerbahçe, thus being relegated to the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, where on the fourth preliminary round, Slovácko was able to beat Sweden's AIK twice, hence qualifying for the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time in its history.

On 15 September 2022, Petržela scored in a 4–2 loss to 1. FC Köln in their second ECL group stage match, and in doing so, at the age of 39 years and 89 days, he became the oldest goalscorer in the short history of the Europa Conference League, as well as the second-oldest goalscorer in any UEFA competition, only behind Joaquín, who scored in that same day in Europa League, aged 41 years and 56 days. Pepe has since overtaken him as well with a goal in the Champions League at the age of 40 years and 289 days.

On 6 November 2022, Petržela set a new Czech First League record with 465 appearances, when he surpassed Jaroslav Šilhavý with 464 appearances. In December 2023, the 40-year-old Petržela made his record-extending 500th start in the Czech First League.

On 18 June 2025, Petržela joined his former club Slovácko again, in a role where he is intended to have a role on the field, but also off the field.

Career statistics

Honours Viktoria Plzeň Czech First League: 2010–11 Czech Cup: 2009–10 Czech Republic Football Supercup: 2011

Slovácko Czech Cup: 2021–22