Josef Masopust (9 February 1931 – 29 June 2015) was a Czech

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach. He played as

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and was a key player for

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, 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 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

'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 Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. He is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time.

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 Dukla Prague () was a Czech football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in the 1966–67 season, reached the semi-finals of the ...

in winter 1956). Masopust won eight league championships and three national cups with Dukla. They also reached the semi-finals of the 1966–67 European Cup, losing to the eventual winners of the competition ( Celtic). When he eventually went abroad in 1968, he helped Crossing Molenbeek win promotion to the Belgian first division as player-coach. His coaching career continued at Dukla, however his only Czechoslovak league title as a coach came with Zbrojovka Brno in the 1977–78 season. Later, between 1984 and 1987, he led the Czechoslovakia national team, overseeing a total of 27 matches. He subsequently had a spell in Indonesia where he coached their national Olympic football team with Milan Bokša between 1988 and 1991.

International career

Masopust made his international debut in October 1954, in a friendly match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He helped

qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but the team were knocked out after a play-off match against

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. He then went on to finish the 1955-60 Central European International Cup as winner in 1960. Czechoslovakia then finished in third place in the new tournament 1960 UEFA European Football Championship, losing to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in the semi-final and defeating

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in the third place match. In 1962, Masopust led the Czechoslovakia team that reached the 1962 FIFA World Cup Final, losing to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. He scored the opening goal in the Final, but Brazil came back to win 3–1. 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

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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. Czechoslovakia failed to qualify for the 1966 World Cup; Masopust had only played in one qualification match, a 1–0 defeat against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in May 1965. His last international appearance was in May 1966, in a friendly match against the Soviet Union. Overall, he was capped 63 times for his national team, scoring ten goals.

Style of play

Early in his career, Masopust played as a left half. By the time of the 1962 World Cup, he had moved to the centre half position. 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. Like Bozsik, Masopust was also an excellent passer of the ball. He was not great at tackling opponents, but he compensated for this by anticipating his opponents' actions and intercepting their passes. Shackled by Czechoslovakia's "no-risk" style philosophy, Masopust's natural inclination for attack was limited, yet he still managed ten goals in 63 caps for his national team. At club level, he scored 79 times in 386 appearances for Dukla Prague. Many of his Dukla teammates also played for the national team, which gave them a greater understanding than some of their opponents.

Legacy

A statue of Masopust was built outside Dukla's Stadion Juliska and was unveiled in June 2011.

Death

Masopust died on 29 June 2015 at his home in Prague at the age of 84. Although no cause of death was given, Czech Television stated that he had been fighting an unspecified long, serious illness.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Czechoslovakia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Masopust goal.''

Honours

Dukla Prague * Czechoslovak First League:

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

, 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 * Central European International Cup: 1955-60 * UEFA European Championship bronze medal: 1960 *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

runner-up:

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

Individual * Ballon d'Or:

* UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1960 * FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 1962 * FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1962 * World Soccer World XI: 1962, 1964 * ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1962 * Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year: 1966 * UEFA Czech Golden Player: 2003 * FIFA 100 * UEFA President's Award: 2014

References

External links

Short biography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Masopust, Josef 1931 births 2015 deaths UEFA Golden Players Footballers from Most (city) Czech men's footballers Czechoslovak men's footballers Czechoslovakia men's international footballers Ballon d'Or winners FIFA 100 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1960 European Nations' Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players FK Teplice players Dukla Prague footballers Czech football managers Czechoslovak football managers Czechoslovakia national football team managers Dukla Prague managers FC Zbrojovka Brno managers Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Czechoslovak expatriate men's footballers Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium K.V.V. Crossing Elewijt players Men's association football midfielders Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia FK Dukla Prague players FK Baník Most 1909 players