Vlastimil Petržela

Vlastimil Petržela (born 20 July 1953 in Prostějov) is a Czech football coach and former player. He worked with Zenit Saint Petersburg from 2003 to 2006, winning the silver medals of Russian Premier League in 2003 and reaching the quarterfinal stage of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. Before Zenit he managed SK Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague and Bohemians Prague.

As a player, he appeared for Czechoslovakia at the 1982 FIFA World Cup as a substitute against Kuwait. He ended his career because of the serious achilles tendon rupture in 1985, although he continued to play at lower divisions. Shortly after, he became an assistant manager in SK Slavia Prague, where he obtained a manager status during the years. He then moved to FC Slovan Liberec, AC Sparta Prague or FC Bohemians Prague.

There were speculations in 2001, after the Czech republic failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup 2002, that Petržela could be a new national team manager. Petržela himself said, that the speculations were true, as he was one of the three finalists for the position, but Karel Brückner was eventually appointed as a manager of Czech National Team instead of Petržela.

Petržela signed a three-year contract as manager of FK Mladá Boleslav in 2002, however before the end of the calendar year it was announced that he was heading to Russia to be the new manager of Zenit St. Petersburg. He became the first non-Russian, or non-Soviet manager in the history of FC Zenit. He also became the second non-Russian coach in the Russian Premier League.

In the 2006/2007 season he coached Sigma Olomouc. Petržela was appointed manager of Neftchi Baku in the summer of 2007, and was sacked six-months later on 5 January 2008.

In the season 2009/10 he coached FK Viktoria Žižkov in the Czech 2. Liga and in the season 2010/11 he became the new coach of MFK Zemplín Michalovce in the Slovak 2. liga. He joined Vlašim in January 2014.

In 2016–2017 Petržela helped Baník Ostrava to qualify to the Czech First League. Shortly afterwards, he became manager of FC Zlín for a short period. He currently works as a youth coach in Vlašim.

Playing style His former coach Milan Máčala from SK Sigma Olomouc and SK Slavia Prague, who once was a manager of national team of Czechoslovakia (1990-1993) described Petržela as a personality on and off the pitch, hard working striker with good endurance. He also claimed, that Petržela was a good header who had the decent orientation in the penalty area. Máčala compared Petržela's playing abilities to Václav Daněk, who was one the most prolific Czechoslovak goalscorers in his era, or to Brazilian striker Hulk.

Style of management As a manager, Petržela was known for his tough demands on players in a terms of physical fitness. In his own words, he was a pioneer of a hard working pre-season training camp in the 1980s and 1990s in the Czech Republic. Also he was known as a manager, who was trying to give a chance to young talent. In many cases, Petržela was successful as he was able to developed careers of many future Czech internationals, for example Radek Bejbl, Jiří Jarošík, Vladimír Šmicer, Antonín Barák, Jan Suchopárek, Radek Šírl, Patrik Berger or Roman Bednář. He also admitted, that sometimes he was rough, vulgar and that he had to slap some of his players to force them for a better performance.

Among his favourite players he had coached, Petržela named the striker Pavel Kuka, forward Pavel Řehák, who is, since 2018, the assistant manager of Slavia Prague, and the Czech defender Tomáš Řepka.

Honours Player Club TJ Zbrojovka Brno Intertoto Cup: 1975, 1976 TJ Železárny Prostějov Moravian-Silesian Division – Group D (third tier) second place: 1977-1978 TJ Sigma ZTS Olomouc Czech National Football League group B (second tier) third place: 1978-1979, 1979–1980 FK Hvězda Cheb Intertoto Cup: 1981 SK Slavia Praha Czechoslovak First League third place: 1984-1985

Individual Czechoslovak First League third best goalscorer: 1981-1982

Manager SK Slavia Prague Czech Cup runner-up: 1986–1987, 1988–1989 (as an assistant manager)

AC Sparta Prague Czech Cup: 1995–96

Bohemians Prague Czech National Football League 3rd Place: 1997-1998 Czech National Football League Winner: 1998-1999

Zenit Saint Petersburg Russian Premier League Cup: 2003 Russian Premier League 2nd Place: 2003

Baník Ostrava Czech National Football League 2nd Place: 2016–2017

Individual Czech Coach of the year: 1994 Czech Coach of the year 2nd Place: 1995 Czech Coach of the year 3rd Place: 1996, 2003 Czech National Football League Manager of the Month: August 2016

Footnotes