On July of 1937, Rudolf Štechmiller, a Czech journalist, wrote an article about the class level of the Czech football of his time. Even thought, according to him, the level of Czech football decreased, Štechmiller agreed that Czechoslovakia still was world class. To help him discuss the topic, he searched for Jan Dvořáček — centro papiro — who was one of the best forwards of the Continent. Before asking the main questions — which were directed to the level of the current Czech football — Štechmiller interviewed Jan Dvořáček about his days in AC Sparta.

Centro papiro did not start as a Sparta played, but his early football days were in Žižkov. Before playing for Sparta, he excelled in the great Union Žižkov side. Štechmiller starting with a question related to the clubs which Dvořáček played.

Dvořáček: How long have I been active in Sparta? Over five years. Before Sparta, 2 years in Union Žižkov, which I came to from SK Žižkov. A friend transfered me from SK Žižkov to the Union, from where AC Sparta bought me.

— Who was the captain of AC Sparta?

Dvořáček: Well, who but the popular Káďa?

Centro papiro also completes his quote by mentioning how many matches he did play for Sparta and the National Team:

Dvořáček: How many matches did I play? 350 matches for Sparta and 32 for the national team. The best match was Sparta — Barcelona, ​​where I excelled as centre-forward. I scored 3 goals against the famous Zamora. I will not forget them until I die.

— How was your social life in Sparta — asked Štechmiller.

Dvořáček: Good, but never as friendly and sincere as in the Union. Nevertheless, I think that there was a more friendly spirit at that time than today. Today's Sparta seems a little tighter to me.

» What famous names appeared on Sparta's line-ups at the time? There were plenty of them: Janda, Hojer, Kolenatý, Káďa, Peyr, Pilát, Mazal, Pospíšil and others.

— What are they doing now?

Dvořáček: They are mostly officials or engaged in their trades. Pilát is in parliament, for example, Janda in the Ministry of Railways, Káďa in the Ministry of Health, Peyr has his goldsmith's factory.

» What am I doing? I work at the track, where I work in workshops.

» I'm quite satisfied, but sometimes I miss my former life. Quite often we all come together, and it goes without saying that old memories come to life. We remember together the old glory and the happy moments spent at home and on trips abroad.

— What do you think about the current situation in football?

Dvořáček: What do I think? Almost all of us from the former old guard stopped going to matches. Why? To be honest, I have to say that you can't watch today's football. We all agree that today's football is not football in the true sense of the word, but a kind of children's game, carefully combed and smooth. What are the causes? Players have little interest in the outcome of the game. But I see the main shortcoming in the fact that we have no shooters. Our attackers are unprepared and have no sense of accurate and prompt shooting.

— Who do you think are our best players?

Dvořáček: The attackers are Nejedlý, Sobotka and Vytlačil. The half-back line with Bouček, Vodička and Košťálek. Burgr and Čtyřoký still stand out in the defense. Although we have many young players, they are — despite the great talents that some undoubtedly have — still unstable and fluctuating. After all, they did not attach so much importance to the isolated successes and immediately threw the old internationals overboard. On the other hand, it is not possible to condemn young players for failures, as this deprives them of a desire to play. The youth must be supported — but only the youth that deserve support and who will receive reasonable advice. Then success on both sides is guaranteed.



Isaque Argolo: Precisely, according to Dvořáček himself in another article, he played 349 matches and scored 840 goals for AC Sparta. Interesting enough, Dvořáček said that he scored a hat-trick against FC Barcelona. However, according toKáďa himself, Dvořáček scored two goals and the other one was an own goal.