Josef Bican

1928/29 Schustek (AUT) (company)

1929/31 Farbenlutz (AUT) (company)

1931/35 Rapid Vienna (AUT) 61 games, 69 goals

(Austrian Championship: 49 games, 55 goals)

(Austrian Cup: 9 games, 13 goals)

(Mitropa Cup: 3 games, 1 goal)

1935/37 Admira Vienna (AUT) 34 games, 24 goals

(Austrian Championship: 26 games, 17 goals)

(Austrian Cup: 6 games, 5 goals)

(Mitropa Cup: 2 games, 2 goals)

1937/48 Slavia Prague (TCH) 301 games, 591 goals

1949/51 Sokol Vítkovice Železárny (TCH) 65 matches, 74 goals

1952 FC Hradec Kràlové (TCH) 34 matches, 60 goals

(Czechoslovakian Championship 2nd Division: 26 matches, 53 goals)

(Czechoslovakian Cup: 8 matches, 7 goals)

1953/56 Dynamo Prague (TCH) 32 matches, 22 goals

1957 Jiskra Liberec (TCH) 1 match

1957 Spartak Brno (TCH) 4 matches, 2 goals

With the National Team :

Austria: 19 caps, 14 goals

(Friendly matches: 8 caps, 7 goals)

(World Cup qualifier: 1 cap)

(World Cup: 4 caps, 1 goal)

(International Cup: 6 caps, 6 goals)

1st cap: November 29, 1933 against Scotland (2-2)

Czechoslovakia: 14 caps, 12 goals

(Friendly matches: 13 caps, 12 goals)

(International Cup: 1 cap)

Last cap: September 4, 1949 against Bulgaria (1-3)

Bohemia-Moravia: 7 caps, 9 goals

Prague selection: 12 caps, 11 goals

Czech selection: 8 caps, 11 goals

Ostrava selection: 9 selections, 10 goals

Unofficial matches:

1929/31 Farbenlutz (AUT) (company) 2 games, 2 goals

1931 Rapid Vienna-amateure (AUT) 2 games, 3 goals

1931/32 Rapid Vienna-reserve (AUT) 13 games, 24 goals

1931/35 Rapid Vienna (AUT) 84 games, 116 goals

1933 Favoritner AC (AUT) 1 game, 4 goals

1935/37 Admira Vienna (AUT) 60 games, 106 goals

1937/48 Slavia Prague (TCH) 194 games, 427 goals

(Liberation Cup: 6 games, 20 goals)

(Winter tournament: 30 games, 52 goals)

(Friendly games: 158 games, 355 goals)

1938/48 Prague selection: 1 selection

1940/43 SK Banské a Hutni Olomouc (TCH) 8 matches, 27 goals

1940/44 Czech Republic selection: 1 selection

1949/51 Sokol Vítkovice Železárny (TCH) 37 matches, 71 goals

1950/51 Ostrava selection: 1 selection

1952 FC Hradec Kràlové (TCH) 20 matches, 33 goals

1953/56 Dynamo Prague (TCH) 53 matches, 77 goals

1957 Spartak Brno (TCH) 1 match

1956/57 Czechoslovak international selection: 7 selections, 24 goals

Austria: 3 selections, 1 but

Czechoslovakia: 10 caps, 10 goals

Total unofficial matches: 521 matches, 921 goals

Total matches: 1122 matches, 1829 goals

Josef Bican

Born September 25, 1913 in Vienna (AUT)

Died December 12, 2001 in Prague (RTC)

Austrian/Czechoslovakian, Striker, 1m78

Nickname: "Pepi"

Josef Bican was born on September 25, 1913 in Vienna, Austria. Coming from a poor family, his father died in 1921 when he was 30 years old following an injury sustained during a football match. His father was a player at Hertha Vienna. The player suffered a hard tackle, the studs infecting his kidney, he finally died of the infection because he did not want to be operated on.

Josef Bican had a childhood rocked by football, he played in the streets, and his family was very friendly with that of a certain Matthias Sindelar. At 15, he played for the Schustek company then that of Farbenlutz. There, he revealed himself as an excellent finisher. Gifted with both feet, he is also an excellent sprinter, to be honest, he was one of the fastest people in the world at the time. In the 1930s, the world record for speed over 100 meters fluctuated between 10s4 and 10s2, Bican could do it in 10.8 seconds.

Josef Bican also had a style of his own, very athletic, he had a complete offensive palette, he had a remarkable dribbling quality as well as an ease in scoring goals. It is said that he had the ability to dribble opponents with well-placed juggles before scoring.

When he was 18, he was recruited by one of the most prestigious clubs in Austria, Rapid Vienna. With Rapid Vienna, he won the Austrian championship and was already among the best players in the country. He then signed with Admira Vienna where he won 2 new Austrian championships.

Individually, the observation is clear, no one can compete with him in terms of goals. In 95 official matches played in Austria, he scored 93 goals. Enough to make him join the magnificent Austrian national team of the 1930s, he played 19 matches for his country and scored 14 goals. He also participated in the 1934 World Cup with Austria.

At the dawn of the Second World War, the player who was frightened by the Anschluss that was coming decided to join the country of his ancestors, Czechoslovakia. He joined Slavia Prague and scored goal after goal upon his arrival, however the rise of Nazism in Europe would darken this prosperous period for the player. The championships were stopped.

However, despite the chaos in Europe, several big clubs dream of signing Bican with them, this is particularly the case of Juventus Turin with whom he had an agreement in principle, before the player hesitated and canceled the deal.

After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia became a communist territory in 1948 and the player refused to join the communist party, in the same way that he had refused to join the Nazi party in Austria. Then began a period of censorship on the player, the media no longer daring to mention his name for fear of reprisals from the government.

Despite everything, his football career was impressive since no one did better at this time, the player scored 591 goals for Slavia Prague in 301 official matches. The player finished between 1939 and 1944, 5 times top European scorer. He also tried to improve his relations with the political party established in the region, without success, and on May 1, 1953, when he was 39 years old, he was forced to leave the city of Prague.

- Top scorer in football history (908 goals)

- Voted top scorer of the 20th century in 1997 by the IFFHS

- 2nd best Czech footballer of the 20th century

- Top scorer of the Mitropa Cup in 1938 (10 goals) (Slavia Prague)

- Top scorer of the Austrian Championship in 1934 (28 goals) (Rapid Vienna)

- Top scorer of the Czechoslovak Championship in 1938 (22 goals), 1946 (31 goals), 1947 (43 goals), 1948 (21 goals) (Slavia Prague) and 1950 (22 goals) (FC Vitkovice)

- Inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Czech Republic in 2013

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