Jozef Chovanec (born 7 March 1960) is a 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 ...

and manager. He took part in two major tournaments: the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

as a player for Czechoslovakia and

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

as manager of the Czech Republic.

Career

As a footballer, Chovanec spent most of his career at

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

. He moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to play briefly for

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

in 1988. At international level, Chovanec represented

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 ...

52 times, scoring four goals, and played at the

. Chovanec coached

, with his first match being on 6 September 1996, Sparta were bottom of the league after seven games but Chovanec oversaw a turnaround, leading Sparta to win the league title the same season. He stayed in his role until December 1997, before leaving to become manager of the

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

in 1998. The team qualified to the

through corresponding qualification with a perfect record of ten wins from ten matches to reach

. Chovanec did not lead the team to

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, being eliminated by Belgium in a play-off at the end of qualifying, thus resigned from his position in November 2001. His final record as Czech national team manager was 27 wins, seven draws, and 11 losses from 45 matches. Chovanec briefly led Sparta in May 2008 for the final league match of the 2007–08 Czech First League as well as the cup final, which he won. In October 2008, Chovanec returned to

for his third spell as manager, going on to finish the 2008–09 season in second place. He parted from the club in December 2011. He was appointed head coach of

UAE Pro-League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

side Baniyas SC on a one-year contract on 19 June 2012. In March 2014, he became manager of

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; ; ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of approximately 27,000. Etymology The name of the initial settlement located on today's Makovický street was ''Revúca'' ( Slovak "roaring ...

of the

Slovak First Football League The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

until the end of the 2013–14 season.

Personal life

Chovanec was born in Dolné Kočkovce near Púchov. He was married to a woman named Jitka, who died at only 53 years old in 2018. They had two daughters and four grandchildren.

Honours

* Czech Footballer of the Year: 1986 * Czech Coach of the Year: 1998, 1999, 2000

References

External links

*
Profile at idnes.cz

Trenéři v celé historii Sparty at sparta.cz
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chovanec, Jozef 1960 births People from Púchov District Footballers from the Trenčín Region Living people Czechoslovak men's footballers Slovak men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Czechoslovakia men's international footballers MŠK Púchov players AC Sparta Prague players FK Hvězda Cheb players PSV Eindhoven players Czechoslovak First League players Czech First League players Eredivisie players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Czechoslovak expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Slovak football managers AC Sparta Prague managers Czech Republic national football team managers FK Příbram managers ŠK Slovan Bratislava managers FC Kuban Krasnodar managers Baniyas SC managers MFK Ružomberok managers Czech First League managers Russian First League managers UAE Pro League managers Slovak First Football League managers UEFA Euro 2000 managers Slovak expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Slovakia Czech expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Expatriate football managers in Russia Czech expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates