Libor Sionko

Early career

Born in Ostrava, Sionko started playing for TJ Vítkovice and Baník Ostrava as a youth. In 1999, he signed with Sparta Prague. He played successfully for Sparta in the Czech First League and the UEFA Champions League, progressing from twice (1999–00 and 2003–04) from the Champions League group stage. Sionko left Prague, due to contract problems, to join Austrian club Grazer AK in February 2004, helping to achieve the first ever Austrian championship for the Styrians. He also was in the team winning the Austrian Cup for the 4th time. After that remarkable success and change to Austria Vienna, he was a principal for a very successful challenge in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, when the Viennese side reached the quarter-final. In 2005–06 the Czech player was an Austrian double winner a second time.

Rangers & Copenhagen

Sionko completed a Bosman transfer to Rangers on 16 May 2006 on a three-year contract. He scored on his Scottish Premiership debut against Motherwell on 30 July 2006 in the Gers' 2–1 win. Frequent injury, however, meant that he was used intermittently by Paul Le Guen. He re-established himself in the team in December 2006 where he scored against Hibernian and Aberdeen, as Rangers' form improved after a poor start to the season. After making 24 appearances for Rangers in his first season, Sionko signed a two-year contract with Danish champions F.C. Copenhagen in the summer of 2007. On 4 August came Sionko's debut for the club, where he…

Sionko has represented his country at Under 17, Under 18, Under 20 and Under 21 level as well as playing twice in an unofficial friendly tournament in May 1998. He earned his first full cap in a friendly against Poland on 24 April 1999 and has been capped 41 times by the Czech Republic national team, scoring 8 goals. He had been only a substitute for a long time, because his position of right winger was occupied by Karel Poborský.

2000 Olympics

Sionko played in all three games at the 2000 Olympics as the Czechs drew with the United States and Cameroon and lost to Kuwait, meaning they were eliminated at the group stage and finished bottom of their group.

2006 World Cup

He was called up to the Czech team for the 2006 World Cup due to Vladimír Šmicer being injured; however he only featured as a late substitute role in some games as the Czechs were knocked out in the group stage of the competition. Sionko's World Cup debut came against Ghana on 17 June 2006. Ghana won the game 2–0.

Euro 2008

On 11 June, Sionko scored for the Czech Republic in their second game of Euro 2008, a 1–3 defeat to Portugal which sent the Portuguese through to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Sionko equalised in the 17th minute after Deco had opened the scoring in the 8th minute. However, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma added two further goals for their team in the second half to leave the Czechs to battle it out with Turkey in the final game of Group A.

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Austrian Football Bundesliga: 2003–04, 2005–06 Austrian Cup: 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06 Danish Superliga: 2008–09 Danish Cup: 2008–09 Czech First League: 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03 Czech Cup: 2003–04