Jan Koller (; born 30 March 1973) is a Czech former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a striker. He was noted for his height, strong physique, and heading ability. He began his career at

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

, then moved to Belgium, where he became the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 te ...

top scorer with

Lokeren Lokeren () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second most important city after Sint-Niklaas. The city, located on the river ...

. He won the league championship twice with

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

and the

Belgian Golden Shoe In association football, the Belgian Golden Shoe ( nl, Gouden Schoen, french: Soulier d'Or) is an award given in Belgium at the beginning of each civil year to the best footballer of the Belgian First Division A for the past year. The trophy is spon ...

. In 2001, he joined

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

, where he won the

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 ...

title in his first season and scored 73 goals in 167 official games over five campaigns. He moved frequently in his later career, with stops in France, Germany and Russia. Koller is the all-time top scorer for the Czech Republic national team, with 55 goals in 91 appearances in a decade-long career starting in 1999. He represented the nation at three

UEFA European 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 conte ...

s and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

Club career

Early career

Koller started his football training as a

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 ...

, but was converted to striker by the time he started his professional career with Czech club

. He made his début for Sparta in the spring of 1995 in a match against

Benešov Benešov (; german: Beneschau; also known as Benešov u Prahy) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The town is known for the Konopiště Castle. Administrative parts Villages of Baba, ...

, coming on as a substitute with 20 minutes of the game remaining. In 1996, Koller caught the eye of Belgian football and signed with the club

for a fee equivalent to €102,000.

Anderlecht

After a successful three-year stint, in which he managed to finish as

top-scorer in his last season at Lokeren, Koller was signed by Belgian club

. He quickly built up a successful partnership with Canadian striker

Tomasz Radzinski Tomasz Radzinski (born 14 December 1973) is a former professional soccer player who played as a striker and winger. He featured for clubs including North York Rockets in Canada, Germinal Ekeren, Anderlecht (where he won the national champions ...

, excelling in his debut season and earning him the

in 2000. At the end of the season, he was bought by German side

after turning down English side

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

Borussia Dortmund

While Koller was at Dortmund, the club won the

2001–02 Bundesliga The 2001–02 Bundesliga the 39th season of the Bundesliga. It began on 28 July 2001 and concluded on 4 May 2002. Teams Eighteen teams competed in the league – the top fifteen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted fr ...

, thanks in part to Koller's 11 league goals. Besides the Bundesliga title his biggest success whilst at Dortmund was helping them to the

2002 UEFA Cup Final The 2002 UEFA Cup Final was an association football match played on 8 May 2002, between Feyenoord of the Netherlands and Borussia Dortmund of Germany at the Feijenoord Stadion in Rotterdam, Feyenoord's home ground. It was the 31st UEFA Cup final ...

, where his goal could not prevent them losing 3–2 to Feyenoord. His training as a goalkeeper saw some use in the 2002–03 season. In a Bundesliga match against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, Dortmund's goalkeeper

Jens Lehmann Jens Gerhard Lehmann (; born 10 November 1969) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was a member of Arsenal's " Invincibles", playing every match of their unbeaten title-winning season. He holds the UEFA Ch ...

was sent off in the second half for a second yellow card, and Dortmund had already used their three substitutions. Koller, who had already opened the scoring in the 8th minute, moved from striker to goalkeeper after 67 minutes of the match. He prevented any more goals for the rest of the match, despite Dortmund having been reduced to nine players due to the earlier expulsion of Torsten Frings. Koller was named by ''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

'' as the Bundesliga's top goalkeeper of the week for his performance.

Monaco and Nürnberg

In a surprising move, Koller signed with French side

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

in 2006 but a two-season disappointing campaign, despite a decent scoring record, forced him to move back to Germany to play with

Nürnberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. Unfortunately for Koller, who wasn't the only Czech in the team as he was partnered with

Tomáš Galásek Tomáš Galásek (; born 15 January 1973) is a Czech former football player and current manager. He was a holding midfielder who was also strong as a centre-back. Club career Galásek started his career with Banik Ostrava in 1991, before movi ...

and Jaromír Blazek, the Nürnberg-based club had performed poorly throughout the season and were relegated to

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

at the end of the 2007–08 season.

Later career

On 23 June 2008, Koller was transferred to Russian club

Krylia Sovetov Samara PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara (russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб «Крылья Советов» Самара) is a football club from Russia based in Samara. It returned to the Russian Premier League for the 20 ...

in a deal worth €1 million. On 5 December 2009, Koller returned to France, joining

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...

team

AS Cannes Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 3, t ...

, with a contract until June 2011. Koller announced his retirement from football in August 2011 after a series of injuries.

International career

Koller made his debut for the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

in a friendly away to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

at the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 9 February 1999, and netted the only goal of the game in the 73rd minute. He scored six goals in six games in

UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2000 final tournament, took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups. All teams played against each other, within their groups, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group ...

as the Czechs topped their group; this included two in a 4–0 win in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. At the finals in Belgium and the Netherlands, he started each game as his team exited in the group stage. In

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

, Koller only scored twice in eight games, both in a 4–0 win over

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

Teplice Teplice () (until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; german: Teplitz-Schönau or ''Teplitz'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest Czech spa town, after Karlovy Vary. The his ...

. His best performance in a major tournament was in Euro 2004, when his side reached the semi-finals and he scored two goals, forming a pivotal partnership with fellow striker

Milan Baroš Milan Baroš (; born 28 October 1981) is a Czech footballer who plays as a striker. He currently plays for FK Vigantice at amateur level. In 2005, he was part of the Liverpool team which won the UEFA Champions League. He went on to win Ligue ...

. He became the all-time leading scorer for the Czech Republic on 8 June 2005, following a match against Macedonia in which he scored four goals in just 11 minutes of a 6–1 win, taking his international total to 39. In the 2006 World Cup, Koller scored the opening goal of a 3–0 win against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in their first game, but later suffered a minor

thigh In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip ( pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb. The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of ...

injury; the Czech Republic lost their next two matches without him and were eliminated. Into his third month with Nürnberg, Koller announced that he would retire from the Czech national team after

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

. He finished his international career with 55 goals, including a crucial headed goal in their deciding Euro 2008 Group A match against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

; However, his goal was not enough as the Czechs conceded three goals in the last 15 minutes, losing the match 3–2, and failing to progress to the knock-out stage, prompting Koller to announce his retirement from the national team. In July 2009, he announced that he would rejoin the national team because of poor results in the

2010 World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Ocea ...

. He played in the match against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

, but on 6 September 2009, he again announced his retirement from international football.

Style of play

Koller was particularly noted for his height, strong physique and heading ability, being referred to as a "towering forward" and a "human lighthouse". Due to his stature, he was often nicknamed '' Dino'' throughout his career.

Career statistics

Club

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

Honours

Sparta Prague *

Czech First League The Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, is a Czech professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Czech football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Seasons typically r ...

: 1994–95 *

Czech Cup The Czech Cup ( cs, Pohár FAČR), officially known as the MOL Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the major men's football cup competition in the Czech Republic. It is organised by the Czech Football Association. The Czech Cup was first held in 19 ...

: 1995–96 Anderlecht *

: 1999–2000, 2000–01 *

Belgian Supercup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champi ...

: 2000, 2001 Borussia Dortmund *

: 2001–02 Individual *

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

top scorer: 1998–99 *

Czech Footballer of the Year The Czech Footballer of the Year ( cs, Fotbalista roku) is awarded in the Czech Republic by the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FA ČR). Eligibility extends to Czech players in the Czech Republic and abroad. Awards for young player, co ...

: 1999 *

: 2000

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koller, Jan 1973 births Living people Footballers from Prague Association football forwards Czech footballers Czech Republic under-21 international footballers Czech Republic international footballers 1. FC Nürnberg players 2006 FIFA World Cup players AC Sparta Prague players AS Cannes players AS Monaco FC players Belgian First Division A players Borussia Dortmund players Bundesliga players Championnat National players Czech expatriate footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Czech expatriate sportspeople in France Czech expatriate sportspeople in Germany Czech expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Czech expatriate sportspeople in Russia Czech people of German descent Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Monaco Expatriate footballers in Russia PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Ligue 1 players R.S.C. Anderlecht players UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2004 players UEFA Euro 2008 players Czech First League players Russian Premier League players Outfield association footballers who played in goal