Antonín Panenka (born 2 December 1948) is a Czech retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

er who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He spent most of his career representing Czechoslovak club Bohemians Prague. Panenka won

UEFA Euro 1976 The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 16 and 20 June 1976. Only f ...

with the national team of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In the final against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

, he notably scored the winning

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penal ...

in the shootout with a softly-chipped ball up the middle of the goal as the goalkeeper dived away; a style of penalty now known as a '' panenka'', named after him. In 1980, he won Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year and his team finished third at

Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams i ...

Club career

An attacking

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

er known for the quality of his passing and his free kicks, Panenka played for Bohemians Praha for most of his career, joining the club in 1967. In 1981, Panenka left Bohemians for Austrian club

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, where he won two

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

titles and an

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

. In 1985 Rapid reached the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

final; Panenka played as a substitute, but his side lost 3–1 to Everton. Later that year, Panenka moved to VSE St. Pölten and played two more seasons before moving into the lower leagues in Austria, playing from 1987 to 1989 for Slovan Vienna, from 1989 to 1991 for ASV Hohenau and from 1991 to 1993 for Kleinwiesendorf.

Panenka penalty

Panenka came to international prominence playing for

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, where Czechoslovakia reached the final, facing

. After

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

, the match finished 2–2, and so the first

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

in a

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

final ensued. The first seven kicks were converted until West Germany's fourth penalty taker, Uli Hoeneß, ballooned his shot over the bar. With the score 4–3, Panenka stepped up to take the fifth Czechoslovakian penalty, to win the match under immense pressure. He feigned shooting to the side of the goal, causing German

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Sepp Maier Sepp may refer to: *Sepp (given name) *Sepp (surname) *Science & Environmental Policy Project * Sepp (publisher) *Substantially equal periodic payments, US tax-law provision *Single Edge Processor Package *State Enterprise for Pesticide Production ...

dive to his left, and then gently chipped the ball into the middle of the net. The sheer cheek of the goal led a watching French journalist to dub Panenka "a poet", and to this day his winning kick is one of the most famous ever, making Panenka's name synonymous with that particular style of penalty kick. Since 1976 there have been numerous attempts to emulate Panenka, both successfully and others unsuccessfully, at every level of the sporting pyramid across the world, including in critical match winning moments such as international cup finals.

Post-playing career

Following his career, Panenka has worked as a president at former club Bohemians 1905. On 7 October 2020, the club confirmed that Panenka had been admitted to hospital and was in intensive care after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. By mid October, Panenka's condition had improved and he was discharged to continue his recovery at home.

Honours

Club

Rapid Wien *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 1981–82, 1982–83 *

: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85

International

;Czechoslovakia *

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

Individual

* UEFA European Football Championship Team of the Tournament: 1976 * Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year: 1980 *

Golden Foot Legends Award The Golden Foot award is an international football award, given to players who stand out for their athletic achievements (both as individuals and team players) and for their personality. The award is only given to active players of at least 28 year ...

: 2014

References

External links

*
Antonín Panenka and his famous goal
– photos * – video
Jiří Dienstbier">Antonín Panenka with presidential nominee Jiří Dienstbier
in Talk show Czech TV 8 November 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Panenka, Antonin 1948_births Living_people Footballers_from_Prague.html" ;"title="Living_people.html" ;"title="1948 births Living people">1948 births Living people Footballers from Prague">Living_people.html" ;"title="1948 births Living people">1948 births Living people Footballers from Prague Czech footballers Czechoslovak footballers Association football midfielders Bohemians 1905 players SK Rapid Wien players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Czechoslovakia international footballers UEFA Euro 1976 players UEFA Euro 1980 players 1982 FIFA World Cup players UEFA European Championship-winning players Czechoslovak expatriate footballers Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)