Best Czech Forwards of All Time

In this post, we are specifically to best Czech forwards of all time among whom are some greatest Czech footballers like Jan Koller and even Czech Republic football player legends like Oldrich Nejedly or Josef Bican.

There is also the question who the

best Czech Football players in 2022

are. Well, there might be players like Adam Hložek, David Zima, and Daniel Samek whom you can consider as the best Czech Football players in 2022, but of course, the list of best Czech Football players in 2022 is not limited to these 3 players, though they are among the most expensive young Czech footballers, too.

A List of Best Czech Forwards of All Time

As we mentioned above, there are Czech Republic football player legends like Oldrich Nejedly or Josef Bican on the list of best Czech forwards of all time, but let’s see which other footballers populate the list.

Pavel Kuka

Played for Czech clubs but also German clubs like VfB Stuttgart during his career, Pavel Kuka is a 53-year-old retired Czech forward who also played for the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia national teams scoring 22 goals in 63 appearances for the former and 7 goals in 24 appearances for the latter in a span of 10 years between 1991 and 2001. At club level, Kuka scored a total of 169 goals in 440 appearances only at league level. If you just sum up his international and club goals and appearances, you see that Kuka was not a prolific goalscorer - he scored around one goal in every three appearances of his averagely, however, he is still considered as one of the

best Czech forwards of all time

. Maybe because of his technicality? You tell us!

Kuka was also part of the Czech national team who finished as runner-up in Euro 96 and on the third place in the 1997 edition of FIFA Confederations Cup. At club level, despite the fact that Kuka served the Czech club, Slavia Prague, more than any other club during his career - actually for 9 years, he won all his club trophies, namely a Bundesliga 2 title, a Bundesliga title, and a DFB Pokal trophy, with the German club, FC Kaiserslautern.

Tomas Skuhravy

Best known for his spell with the Italian club, Genoa, Tomas Skuhravy is a 56-year-old retired Czech forward who served six clubs during his career with Geona being the club he served the most: Actually for five years between 1990 and 1995 during which he managed to score 67 goals in his 188 appearances for them. With that number of goals, he was, indeed, Genoa’s top scorer of all time for some time, but currently he’s the Italian club’s fifth all-time top scorer. During his spell with Genoa, Skuhravy formed an attacking partnership with the Uruguayan forward, Carlos Aguilera, which worked for some time. The peak of their performance was in 1990-91 season where they managed to score 15 goals for Genoa as a duo leading the club to Serie A fourth position at the end of the season which was actually the club’s best result in their modern history.

Skuhravy also served both Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic national teams between 1985 and 1995 scoring 14 goals in his 43 appearances for the former and 3 goals in his 6 appearances for the latter. He took part in 1995 World Cup with

and scored 5 goals including a hat-trick against Costa Rica to become the tournament’s second top scorer.

Zdenek Nehoda

Having played usually as a right winger but also as a forward during his career, Zdenek Nehoda is a 70-year-old retired Czech footballer who served six clubs during his 20-year career which lasted from 1969 to 1989. He served his home-country club,

, more than any other club during his career; actually for 12 years between 1971 and 1983 during which he managed to score 124 goals in his 290 appearances for them only at league level. It was as he served the other clubs he played for during his career for a year or two. Nehoda also served the Czechoslovakian national team for 16 years between 1971 and 1987 making 91 appearances and scoring 31 goals for them in the process which made him Czechoslovakia second top scorer of all time. He was part of the Czechoslovakian national team in 1982 World Cup and took part in 1976 and 1980 editions of Euro with them winning the former and finishing as third in the latter. The retired Czech forward and winger also won three Czechoslovakian First League titles with Dukla Prague and was named Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year in two consecutive years of 1978 and 1979. Nehoda works currently as a football agent.

Frantisek Svoboda

The first passed footballer on the list of best Czech forwards of all time and also one of the earliest on the list in chronological order, Frantisek Svoboda played in Czechoslovak First League between 1926 and 1941 and served the Czech club, Slavia Prague, for almost all his career. In fact, if he hadn’t served the two Czech clubs, Rapid Vinohrady and

, around a season, we could have said he had served only Slavia Prague during his career. Maybe the only highlight of Svoboda’s footballing career, of course as far as we know, is his becoming Czechoslovak First League top scorer in 1935. He also scored 101 goals during his service to Slavia Prague but in how many appearances we don’t know since the records of his play date back to as early as 1926 and some of them are actually lost.

Svoboda also served the Czechoslovak national team between 1926 and 1937 making 43 appearances and scoring 22 goals for them in the process - around one goal in every two appearances. He was part of the Czechoslovak national team in 1934 FIFA World Cup and managed to score a goal against Switzerland in one of the three group-stage matches that Czechoslovakia played in that competition. Svoboda died in July 1948 at the age of 41.

Vlastimil Kopecky

The second passed footballer on the list of

best Czech forwards of all time

, Vlastimil Kopecky served only two Czech clubs during his 24-year career which spanned from 1927 to 1951: Rapid Vinohrady and Slavia Prague. It might be interesting for you to know that in his 325 appearances for Slavia Prague, Kopecky scored a total of 252 goals - 1.54 goals in every two appearances averagely - and by doing so he became Slavia Prague’s second top scorer of all time. He is also the holder of the record for most appearances within Czechoslovak league with a total of 953 appearances, and for Slavia Prague, he also once managed to score 10 goals in two single matches - five in each. The passed Czech footballer also served the Czechoslovak national team between 1932 and 1948 making 26 appearances and scoring 8 goals for them in the process. He died in July 1967 at the age of 54 due to a heart attack on the pitch. If you consider his goalscoring rate and also his two records, he could probably be called one of the greatest Czech footballers or?

Milan Baros

The most recent footballer on the list of best Czech forwards of all time in terms of being active, Milan Baros is a 40-year-old retired Czech forward who announced his retirement at the end of 2019-20 season after scoring a total of 177 goals in his 556 club appearances. This retirement was, of course, from professional football as he’s currently a player of the amateur Czech club, FK Vigantice, with no one knowing when he’s going to really hang up his boots for ever. Baros is the only footballer on the list of best Czech forwards of all time who served the top Premier League club, Liverpool, sometime during his career. In this respect, he could be considered even as the best Czech forward ever in modern football since no other footballer on the list, even Jan Koller, had the chance to play for a Premier League club during his career.

Baros is also a big name in Czech football as he managed to score 41 goals in his 93 appearances for Czech Republic national team between 2001 and 2012 becoming the fifth most capped Czech footballer and Czech Republic’s second top scorer of all time. He played in 2006 World Cup, but appeared only in one of the three matches that Czech Republic played in that competition, and in 2004, 2008, and 2012 editions of Euro scoring 5 goals in Euro 2004 and becoming the competition’s top scorer thus winning its Golden Ball, although his team was eliminated by Greece in semi-finals. He’s also the only footballer on the list to have served almost all Czech Republic under-aged teams. That actually happened between 1996 and 2002 that Baros served Czech Republic U15, U16, U17, U18, an U21 teams making 52 appearances and scoring 19 goals for them in the process.

During his service to the Czech Republic national team Baros also provided 15 assists in addition to the 41 goals he scored for them which is not bad for a forward. The most number of goals he scored in a single international match was in a 2010 World Cup qualification match against

where he managed to score 4 goals helping his team in a 7-0 win. Baros was nicknamed “the Ostravan Maradona” within his own country, Czech Republic, due to his similarities in playstyle to the Argentinian legend which included his pace and top dribbling skills. The fact that he played for Liverpool and had an active role there at least in two seasons that he served the Premier League club is a proof to his professionalism compared to other footballers on the list.

It should be mentioned here that Baros also served the Premier League club, Aston Villa, for two seasons after he served Liverpool and became the Turkish Super League top scorer in 2008-09 season with 20 goals while he was with the Turkish club, Galatasaray. If we cannot call Baros one of the

Czech Republic football player legends

, he’s for sure one of the greatest Czech footballers considering what was mentioned about him above.

Antonin Puc

Mostly known for his being Czechoslovakia top scorer of all time with 34 goals, Antonin Puc is a passed Czech forward and winger who, just like Frantisek Svoboda, is one of the earliest footballers on the list in chronological order. He was born in 1907 and died in April 1988 at the age of 80. His career lasted from 1925 to 1941 during which he served three Czech clubs, SK Smíchov, Slavia Prague, and Viktoria Žižkov with Slavia Prague being the club that got the highest share of Puc’s years of service; actually 13 years from 1925 to 1938 during which he managed to score 112 goals in his 146 appearances for the club - by this account, he was also a prolific scorer. It was as he served the other two clubs mentioned above only for a year or two.

As mentioned above, Puc is Czechoslovakia top scorer of all time with the 34 goals that he scored in his 60 appearances for them between 1926 and 1938. He took part in the 1934 and 1938 editions of FIFA World Cup with the Czechoslovakian national team and also scored two goals for them in the former edition with one of them being in the competition’s final against Italy which ended in Czechoslovakia’s 2-1 loss. As you see from the Puc’s international goalscoring ratio (0.56), one can conclude that he was also a prolific scorer at international level as it was really so.

Jan Koller

Just like Milan Baros, Jan Koller is also considered as one of the

greatest Czech footballers

in modern football history. Although Koller never served a Premier League club during his career like Baros did, he’s the most versatile footballer on the list of best Czech forwards of all time considering the clubs he served which were actually from different countries, namely France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and his own country, Czech Republic. Maybe the most prominent club Koller served during his career was Borussia Dortmund - it was also the club he served the most, however, he also served other top European clubs like Monaco of France and Anderlecht of Belgium during his footballing time.

Koller also served the Czech Republic national team between 1999 and 2009 making 91 appearances and scoring 55 goals for them in the process which actually has made him Czech Republic top scorer of all time and with quite a notable margin with the nation’s second all-time top scorer, Milan Baros, who scored only 41 international goals during his career. And you might not believe, that margin gets doubled if you compare Koller to Czech Republic third top scorer of all time who scored only 27 international goals during his career. That, if you ask us, shows that Koller is not going to be replaced by any other Czech international on the list of Czech all-time top scorers anytime soon. We have Patrik Schick among Czech Republic top scorers of all time who is still active but has scored only 17 international goals which means it’s not even probable that he takes over Koller.

Koller took part in one edition of FIFA World Cup, namely the 2006 edition, with the Czech national team and also scored a goal in Czech Republic’s first group-stage match against

that ended in their 3-0 win, however, he picked up a thigh injury in the same match, too, which prevented him from taking part in Czech’s next two group-stage matches; what, as some believe, was the cause of Czech’s early elimination from the competition. He also took part in three editions of Euro, namely the 2000, 2004, and 2008 editions, scoring 3 goals and providing 2 assists in all the three editions together and finishing as runner-up in 2004 edition after Czech Republic lost 1-0 to Greece after extra time in the competition’s final.

The most number of goals Koller scored in a single international match was in a 2006 World Cup qualification match against

where he scored 4 goals in 11 minutes helping his team in a 6-1 win. It was in the same match that Koller became Czech Republic’s top scorer of all time by scoring his 39th international goal. Koller’s strength lied in his high stature, physicality, and heading ability. He was, indeed, a towering forward whom sometimes was referred to as “human lighthouse” or “Dino” due to his high stature; the same feature that helped him won most of his aerial duels.

Oldrich Nejedly

Also one of the earliest footballers on the list of best Czech forwards of all time in chronological order, Oldrich Nejedly is a passed Czech forward who served only two clubs during his career:

and SK Rakovnik. What is quite notable about Oldrich Nejedly is his being a prolific goalscorer during his career. He actually scored 180 goals in his 225 club appearances which translates to 4 goals in every 5 appearances averagely. He also scored 29 goals in his 44 appearances for the Czechoslovakian national team between 1931 and 1939 - 1.3 goals in every 2 appearances averagely. Nejedly was actually part of the Czechoslovakian national team in 1934 World Cup and not only became the competition’s top scorer with 5 goals but also won its Bronze Ball for his top performances. Unfortunately, he broke his leg before 1938 World Cup and could not take part in that tournament otherwise he could increase his international goals and even become Czechoslovakia top scorer of all time. Nejedly died in June 1990 at the age of 80.

Josef Bican

The footballing life of the passed Austrian-Czech footballer, Josef Bican, is teeming with goals! According to RSSSF (Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation), Bican is the second most prolific scorer in official matches in the recorded history of football with more than 950 goals scored in 624 matches. But that’s only official matches; according to the same foundation, Bican scored more than 1813 goals in over 1089 matches. From all these goals, he scored 1137 only for one club: Slavia Prague and in 514 appearances which gets him an incredible goal-to-appearance ratio of 2.2 making him the most prolific goalscorer for a single club in football history.

Also, with that number of goals Bican became Slavia Prague’s top scorer of all time. But that’s not all. Bican is also the Czechoslovakian First League top scorer of all time with the 417 goals that he scored within it and holds the record for most goals scored in a single season within the same league by scoring 57 goals in 26 appearances in 1943-44 season. At international level, the passed Czech footballer proved almost as effective as club level: He scored a total of 26 goals in his 33 appearances for the Austrian and Czechoslovakian national teams together - 14 goals in 19 appearances for the former and 12 goals in 14 appearances for the latter.

It might be interesting for you to know that Bican was named the greatest goalscorer of the 20th century by IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics) in 2000 due to the number of times he had become the top scorer of the domestic league he played in - Czechoslovakia First League: 12 times and for that he was awarded IFFHS’ Golden Ball. By such great unrivalled records, Bican, who died in December 2001 at the age of 88, is for sure one of the greatest Czech footballers of all time.

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