Josef Bican

25 September 1913, Vienna, Austria-Hungary (modern-day Austria) – 12 December 2001, Prague

Josef Bican was the son of the talented football player František Bican, who died at the age of 31 from consequences of a football injury. The family tragedy, however, did not discourage Josef – to the contrary, when he was twelve, he was already playing football for a living. When he was eighteen, he played for Rapid Vienna’s A team and the skills that he showed there led him to the Austrian national team, which was the 4^th in the 1934 World Cup in Italy. After the successful tournament, the young football player wanted to transfer to Slavia Prague, which was his dream, but Rapid’s management did not allow it.

Josef Bican put on his Slavia jersey only in August 1937 and in the same year request Czechoslovak citizenship so that he could play for his new homeland in the 1938 World Cup in France. However, he did not make it in time due to formalities. Josef Bican’s approach to football was very professional for his time, which is evidenced by his salary in Slavia. While his fellow players made 1,500 crowns playing football, Bican earned as much as 5,000. During the Second World War he received an offer from Hitler himself to take German citizenship and play for its national team. He rejected it.

His salary provided him and his family with a comfortable life, which was turned upside down in 1948. As the communist regime regarded him as an enemy, he had to make a living by working in another trade. For a while he worked as an assistant worker in steelworks in Kladno. He played his last league match at the age of 42, in the autumn of 1955. Josef Bican later worked as a coach in Slavia Prague, Kladno, Liberec, Brno, etc. He never lasted on any single post because after some time he would always be dismissed due to political reasons.

His name became known all over Europe when he coached the Belgian club Tongeren, between 1969 and 1972. In the 1990s, Bican received a number of awards for his football career. The life motto of this exceptional football player, who scored almost a thousand goals for Slavia Prague, was that football should be played not only with feet, but also with heart. Josef Bican was buried in the Vyšehrad Cemetery.