Loser, alcoholic, bum. But also the player, who was applauded by 107 thousand of people
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Petr Janečka was born on 25 November 1957 in Gottwaldov, today’s Zlín. He was the youngest son of a large family. Both mother and father worked as laborers in the Baťa company, which in 1949 became the Svit company. As a child, Petr Janečka was interested in football and athletics, excelling in sprints and long jumps. At 12, he played in a team with fifteen-year-old footballers in the TJ Gottwaldov club. Because of sports, he did not finish school and started working. At 19, he became the top scorer in the third league and transferred to Zbrojovka Brno. In the premier league season, he scored 13 goals, assisted on another 15, and helped the team to the only championship title in history. In 1978, he debuted on the national team. He played 39 matches there and scored nine goals. In the spring of 1980, he was one of the mainstays of the national team, which was preparing for the European Championships in Italy and the Olympic Games in Moscow. He ended up in the hospital in a serious condition just before the two top tournaments in which Czechoslovakia won bronze and gold. His stomach ulcers betrayed him – a family curse that cost him the European Championships and the Olympics. He nevertheless qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain with the national team. But Czechoslovakia lost unluckily in the group stage. In the same year, he scored a goal in Brazil when he equalized to 1:1 in a match against the home team. In 1983, Zbrojovka was relegated from the first league, and Petr Janečka left for Prague Bohemians. He won third place with them in the season of 1983/84 and second place the next year. In the autumn of 1984, he helped to defeat Ajax Amsterdam with stars van Basten, Koeman, and Rijkaard in the UEFA European Cup. In 1987, an affair with black money broke out in Bohemians, the criminal investigation also investigated Petr Janečka, but he exited unscathed. During his involvement with Bohemians, he passed his high school diploma. In November 1987, he transferred to the Belgian club Racing Brussels, where he played a year in the first league and a year in the second league. In the same year, he ended his engagement with the national team. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he played briefly in Gottwaldov, ending his professional career in Tulln, Austria. Thanks to 105 goals in the Czechoslovak first league and 4 in the Belgian first league, he got into the prestigious Shooters Club. In the nineties, he lost his savings, fell into alcoholism, and his family fell apart. He became homeless. He was helped by former teammates from Zbrojovka Brno, Bohemians, and Gottwaldov, as well as the fans. In 2022, he lived in a hostel in Prague, which he paid for with an annuity provided by the Tipsport Foundation.
