Vlastimil Petržela

His former coach Milan Máčala from SK Sigma Olomouc and SK Slavia Prague, who once was a manager of national team of Czechoslovakia (1990-1993) described Petržela as a personality on and off the pitch, hard working striker with good endurance. He also claimed, that Petržela was a good header who had the decent orientation in the penalty area. Máčala compared Petržela's playing abilities to Václav Daněk, who was one the most prolific Czechoslovak goalscorers in his era, or to Brazilian striker Hulk.

As a manager, Petržela was known for his tough demands on players in a terms of physical fitness. In his own words, he was a pioneer of a hard working pre-season training camp in the 1980s and 1990s in the Czech Republic. Also he was known as a manager, who was trying to give a chance to young talent. In many cases, Petržela was successful as he was able to developed careers of many future Czech internationals, for example Radek Bejbl, Jiří Jarošík, Vladimír Šmicer, Antonín Barák, Jan Suchopárek, Radek Šírl, Patrik Berger or Roman Bednář. He also admitted, that sometimes he was rough, vulgar and that he had to slap some of his players to force them for a better performance. Among his favourite players he had coached, Petržela named the striker Pavel Kuka, forward Pavel Řehák, who is, since 2018, the assistant manager of Slavia Prague, and the Czech defender Tomáš Řepka.

Player

Club

TJ Zbrojovka Brno

Intertoto Cup: 1975, 1976 TJ Železárny Prostějov

Moravian-Silesian Division – Group D (third tier) second place: 1977-1978 TJ Sigma ZTS Olomouc

Czech National Football League group B (second tier) third place: 1978-1979, 1979–1980 FK Hvězda Cheb

Intertoto Cup: 1981 SK Slavia Praha Czechoslovak First League third place: 1984-1985

Individual

Czechoslovak First League third best goalscorer: 1981-1982

Manager

SK Slavia Prague Czech Cup runner-up: 1986–1987, 1988–1989 (as an assistant manager) AC Sparta Prague Czech Cup: 1995–96 Bohemians Prague Czech National Football League 3rd Place: 1997-1998 Czech National Football League Winner: 1998-1999 Zenit Saint Petersburg Russian Premier League Cup: 2003 Russian Premier League 2nd Place: 2003 Baník Ostrava Czech National Football League 2nd Place: 2016–2017

Individual

Czech Coach of the year: 1994 Czech Coach of the year 2nd Place: 1995 Czech Coach of the year 3rd Place: 1996, 2003 Czech National Football League Manager of the Month: August 2016