Rudolf Skácel
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| Rudolf Skácel | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rudolf Skácel | |
| Date of birth | July 17, 1979 (age 27) | |
| Place of birth | Trutnov, Czech Republic | |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in | |
| Position | Midfielder | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Southampton | |
| Number | 7 | |
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
| 2002-2003 2003-2005 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006- |
Slavia Prague Olympique de Marseille → Panathinaikos (loan) Hearts Southampton |
? (?) ? (?) 0 (0) 35 (16) 12 (1) |
|
* Professional club appearances and goals |
||
Rudolf "Rudi" Skacel (pronounced Skatsel; born July 17, 1979) is a professional footballer currently playing for Southampton and has been capped at international level by the Czech Republic. He is a left sided midfield player noted for his skilful play and high scoring ratio for his position.
Skacel began his career with Czech club SK Hradec Kralove and made his senior debut in 1999 where Skácel helped Hradec gain promotion back to the Czech top flight. It wasn't long before Skácel's skills were noticed by one of the big Prague clubs and during the 2001/2002 season he was signed by SK Slavia Praha. His most memorable moment at Slavia came in May 2002 when he helped his team defeat Sparta Prague in the Czech Cup Final. It was also in the summer of 2002 that Skácel helped the Czech Republic win the European Under-21 Football Championship.
After another successful season, 2002/2003, where Skácel played in the UEFA Cup and also helped Slavia finish second in the Czech his skills were noticed by French club Olympique de Marseille manager Alain Perrin. In August 2003 Marseille concluded a deal to sign Skacel for a fee of 2.5 million Euros [1].
After a moderate first season at Marseille Skácel found himself out of favour after Perrin was sacked. This led to Skácel being loaned out to Greek club Panathinaikos with an option of a permanent deal. Skácel enjoyed a successful spell at the club, scoring 5 goals and playing in the UEFA Champions League.
After Panathinaikos didn't take up their option to buy Skacel Heart of Midlothian manager George Burley stepped in with an offer to take him on a seasons loan from Marseille. In July 2005 the deal was concluded to take Skácel to Hearts on a seasons loan with the option of a permanent deal [2].
The start of the 2005/06 could not have gone any better for Skácel or Hearts as they won the first seven league games with Skácel scoring in each of them to set a Scottish Premier League record. Skácel's home debut was especially sweet, a 4-0 victory over Hearts great city rivals Hibernian at Tynecastle in which he opened the scoring [3]. This was to be a common sight for the Hearts fans as Skácel went on to score an impressive 16 goals over the season and also scored the Hearts goal in the Scottish Cup final victory over Gretna [4].
Despite announcing that the club had signed Skácel on a permanent deal [5], Skacel's celebration and post match comments after the Scottish Cup Final suggested that he had played his last game for the club [6]. Since Skacel's admission that he wanted to leave Tynecastle his status with the Hearts fans had soured slightly as he appeared to have his heart set on leaving. On 3 July 2006 it was revealed that Skácel and Andy Webster had failed to join up with the squad for pre-season training [7] prompting rumours of Skacel's departure.
On 29 July 2006 Skácel joined Southampton for £1.6m and linked up again with former Hearts manager George Burley who is now in charge.
On a whole Skácel will always be remembered by Hearts fans for his great contribution to the 2nd place finish and the Scottish Cup victory. Although his form tailed off towards the end of the season there can be no doubting his extensive contribution to the team. However opposition fans may point to unfounded accusations of diving [8] and also unsubstantiated accusations that he spat at Celtic captain Neil Lennon [9] accusations which although were made aware of to the Scottish Football Association weren't pursued.
[edit] External links
| Southampton F.C. - Current Squad |
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1 Davis | 2 Östlund | 3 Pelé | 4 Sarmiento | 5 Lundekvam | 6 Powell | 7 Skácel | 8 Wright-Phillips | 9 Rasiak | 10 Wright | 11 Svensson | 12 Lička | 14 Idiakez | 15 Jones | 17 Belmadi | 18 Dyer | 19 Makin | 20 Prutton | 21 Baird | 22 Bale | 23 Viáfara | 25 Poke | 26 Miller | 27 Best | 28 Białkowski | 29 Surman | 35 McGoldrick | 36 Gillett | 38 Sparv | 41 Lallana | Manager: Burley |
