Jan Rajnoch (born 30 September 1981) 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Club career

Rajnoch's career started at AC Sparta Prague's youth academy, playing with prominent Czech talents Tomáš Hübschman and

Tomáš Jun Tomáš Jun (born 17 January 1983) is a Czech former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. Mainly playing in his native Czech Republic, where he was part of the Sparta Prague team ...

. However, he never made an appearance for the senior team. After spells at Bohemians Praha and 1. FC Slovácko he joined Czech

Gambrinus liga The Czech First League () also known as the Chance Liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Czech Republic and the highest level of the Czech Republic football league system. Seasons typically run from ...

outfit

FK Mladá Boleslav FK Mladá Boleslav is a Czech professional football club based in the city of Mladá Boleslav. Since 2004, the club has been participating in the Czech First League. In the Czech First League, Mladá Boleslav were runners up in 2005–06 and o ...

in September 2006. Here he quickly established himself as a key player and became an integral part of the team, playing an important role in their

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

campaign wins against

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional Association football, football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top f ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. In the 2007–08 season, he was made captain.

Switch to Germany

On 7 January 2009, Rajnoch made a loan move to German side

FC Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

where he played out the rest of the season making 10 appearances in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

. However Cottbus could not avoid relegation and Rajnoch returned to Boleslav.

Turkey

Rajnoch moved to Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

outfit

MKE Ankaragücü MKE Ankaragücü or fully Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi Ankaragücü (), is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Ankara. The football team wears a yellow and navy kit and plays its home matches at Eryaman Stadium following the ...

in 2010 on a three-and-a-half-year contract. He scored an own goal against

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

on 2 October 2011 which became Galatasaray's 3000th goal in league history.

International career

Rajnoch played for the Czech Republic national team. He made his international debut on 20 August 2008 in a friendly against England at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

where he came on as a substitute for

Radoslav Kováč Radoslav Kováč (; born 27 November 1979) is a Czech Republic, Czech Association football, football manager and former player. He is the manager of FC Slovan Liberec, Slovan Liberec. Kováč played both in Midfielder, midfield and in Defender ( ...

in the 76th minute. The game ended in a 2–2 draw.

Style of play

He played as a defender or sometimes as a defensive midfielder.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajnoch, Jan Living people 1981 births People from Frýdlant Czech men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football midfielders Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech First League players Süper Lig players Bundesliga players AC Sparta Prague players FK Mladá Boleslav players Bohemians 1905 players 1. FC Slovácko players FC Energie Cottbus players MKE Ankaragücü footballers Sivasspor footballers Adana Demirspor footballers FC Slovan Liberec players SK Sigma Olomouc players Czech expatriate men's footballers Czech expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Footballers from the Liberec Region 21st-century Czech sportsmen