HALF A LIFE IN SPARTAN SHIRT II.
10/06/1932

Among the balls were most of the true football veterans, with numerous traces of great football battles. Some of the balls were more like bread cones, but even those were happily "bited" by the boys on the field, because it was a ball after all! Big ball! The pinnacle of football delights! Does today's football teenager also feel the joy of kicking a big ball? I doubt it! After all, such a natural hunger for the ball, which many of the children of Płock and worshipers of the old Vácha kept for the future, formed the basis of that enthusiasm and appetite for the game, which then won even the most difficult international matches! All the football enthusiasts used to gather at the old Vácha, and if we project the grouping around the old canteen of this true father of the football youth to the present day, we have to say that the portraitist of all the popular internationals would have had a great time here. 

At Vácha's source of refreshment, an old water barrel, you could see all the Koželuh brothers, Ferenz was even old Vácha's assistant. He sewed up balls, put band-aids on burst souls, served clients water in cans, fished cucumbers from bottles, gave them "lure" to drink. In short, he acted! Also, the barefoot king of ball collectors, the gypsy-skinned Karel, the current world champion, moved here among the football honors of the time, from which I only randomly select: Janda, the Hojer brothers, Pilát, Šroubek, Seifert, Capko, Peyr, Rainovič, Subrt, Pechar, Wiesner, Kolenatý, Perner, Meduna, Komeda, Steiner, Dvořáček, the Krausa brothers, Kuchynka, Feller, the Sramla brothers, etc.

In the later times, when the youngsters really had already grown into first-class players, the unforgettable famous Leten league was formed, which played on the "square" of Olympia. There was such a selection of player material that today the association captain would be dizzy with joy. This was not played by the eleven against eleven. No way! That way a number of good players and friends would be eliminated! That's why they played, for example, seventeen against eighteen. There were two goalkeepers in the goal. And they had something to catch! After all, the attack had, for example, three first-class right wingers! They had something to catch even the live nets behind the goal. You know them, those willing extras behind the goal, who chased the ball as far as the waterworks, only if they could then kick it. Often, even among these nice critters behind the goal, a fierce battle was waged for every ball!

May the Letenská league and old Vách always have a fond memory and an honorable place in the memoirs of our football!

They deserve it more than many of today's football generals who prove their love for the sport and professional knowledge only with silver merit badges or a collection of commendations and diplomas!

THE FIRST FOOTBALL SHIRT

Just as a girl from Prague dreamed of her first prom at Zofina and fondly looked at herself in her first prom dress before debuting in master Kaska's dance classes, the illusions of a Prague football boy revolved around his first jersey.

Boys are not as vain as girls, that's why such a first effect of a football ball looked completely silly and very little idyllic. No silk, no bows, no brocade shoes, but a stitched striped shirt, or a torn T-shirt and football boots, in which the nails had to be hammered in with a stone, so that the debutant would not be crippled even before he stepped onto the field. There was no idea of ​​a mirror, because the sheds, stables or smoky pubs, where many international players were given their jerseys, didn't even have a chair, let alone the luxury of mirrors!

Káďa put on a football jersey for the first time at the age of 13, as a newly acquired reserve member of Meteor Vinohrady. However, the engagement of the continent's most popular centre-half was not accompanied by any sensational news in the newspapers, where at that time there was often no place to publish the results of the matches.

Engagement was done quite simply. Káďa was taken with them to Meteor by its youngest members, who at Sifnerák convinced themselves of the tenacity, wit and ferocity of the little blond-haired attacker and friend Karel Pešek. One of Šifnerák's teammates approached Pešek, tapped him on the shoulder and said briefly: "Would you like to play with us on Sunday for Meteor?" Pešek was buzzing, his eyes lit up and he quickly nodded his head so that his friend wouldn't change his mind yet. With this nod of the head, the contract was signed and the playing career of a unique phenomenon of our football was started, who will always remain an exemplary and shining representative model of an honest, sympathetic football professional for Sparta and our entire sport!

On Sunday, little Pešek already played on the wing of Meteora Vinohrady in a jersey that fell to the ground, but which he liked more than the most beautiful festive dress in the world.

After all, it was his first football jersey...

THE PALACE REVOLUTION REVEALED THE TALENTS OF THE BEST HALF-BACK OF THE CONTINENT

In the Meteor jersey, Pešek's talent stood out more than in the civil battles of the "patch" championships, and the good reputation of the promising reservist was spreading around Vinohrady for the time being. The first symptoms of awakening superlatives flew to the ears of the rival club, the then very popular ČAFC. Vinohrady.

The club official, innkeeper Mr. Charvát, who knows very well the difficult living conditions of Pešek's family, offers Pešeka lunches and a game in the ČAFC. first team. The offer is really very tempting. To relieve the family of one hungry neck and at the same time be promoted to the first team of the then popular ČAFC Pešek didn't think twice this time either and nodded just as quickly as he did at the first offer of his football career, like that time at Sifnerák.

Pešek thus became the player of the first CAFKY! On this occasion, we have to say goodbye to the name Pešek, which is slowly receding into the background and instead one of the most famous names on the football continent — Káďa — is coming to the fore!

Pešek-Káďa got this name from his classmates at the gymnasium in Křemenčová. Why he was given the name Káďa is a mystery to me to this day, just as his baptists could hardly trace the origin of this, later so famous, name. Pešek adopted the name Káďa as a pseudonym, as a Spanish wall to disguise a gymnast as a football player. Some professors were not too happy to see such changes and therefore the pseudonym Káďa very often fulfilled its mission and thus protected its bearer from possible punishments.

In ČAFC. Káďa played inside left and inside right with great success. The inside right was then played by Eda Kraus, now a well-known official and ex-juban. Káďa's true talent was discovered almost by accident. He broke out on the ČAFC. team one summer. the palace revolution and the rebels formed their own team and went to Dvůr Králové to play on black. In this city, which today boasts one of the most beautiful stadiums in the country, the local club at the time had an abnormally small pitch. Even so small that the five forwards of the ČAFC. tangled with each other during offensive actions. After a short consultation, it was decided to remove the insiders. Of course, the inside left also lost its existence. Therefore, they transferred Káďa to the left half. In the new location, Káďa proved to be a sensational success. That was the end of Káďa's as inside left and the beginning of the famous Káďa-Pešek half-back era!

Dvůr Králové was therefore the first witness to the game of the half-back Káďa, whose performance in the half-back line was then enthusiastically applauded by the audience of the whole of Europe.

KÁĎA WAS ACQUIRED BY SPARTA FOR 56 CROWNS:

In ČAFC. they now played Káďa as left half-back, and in this position he achieved first-class form from match to match, which could not remain hidden from the eyes of the officials of the Letná clubs for long. During the match Sparta-ČAFC., played in 1913 on the Deutsche Sportbrüdes field, the leaders of Sparta saw with their own eyes that the passing rumors about the excellent Čafák golden-haired half-back were not rumors, but a pleasant fact. Behind the scenes, an important club prop was already being prepared, the "rope" that whistled over Káďa after Sparta's friendly match with ČAFC., fought at that time on the Vinohrady club's field.

ČAFC. club room was in Krkonošská Street in Vinohrady. Charvát's inn was always a witness to the cheerful entertainment of ČAFC. team members after the match. and his opponents, who sang here the glory of the winners and the honor of the defeated.

The mood after Sparta's match with ČAFC. but she wasn't very happy! Some sensational event was hanging in the air, in football parlance. Both Sparta and ČAFC. are at the table. sat a group of mysterious conspirators, whose excited, laboriously muffled words betrayed the lie of great plans. From both apparently hostile camps, the Argus watched every movement of the youthful blond, who in this militancy and mystery-filled atmosphere kept relatively the most calm, even though the fate of the balls was the beginning of a better future and a unique sports career for him.

Finally, in a room least worthy of a historical event, Sparta's negotiators got to the vat so they could offer him transfer terms in a flash.

However, the honey-toned voices of Sparta's officials had not yet died down, when the leaders of ČAFC. rushed in the door, who in the truest sense of the word dragged Kada from those who dragged him to Sparta.

This match of officials ended in a draw for now. Although the coat remained in the hands of Sparta, Káďa remained in the arms of the officials of his club. Back then, Káďa had to promise that he wouldn't go, otherwise he probably wouldn't even get home that day. However, the Spartans did not give up their loot so easily. Their attack was mainly focused on the Achilles heel of Pešek's family, on the very weak conditions of existence. Káďa and his brother, both students, struggled through life as the sons of poor parents, supporting themselves mainly by fitness.

At that time, the wealthy and far-sighted Spartan committee, the editor-in-chief Ferdinand Scheinost, discussed with the player's brother with plans to help the whole family, but only on the condition that Káďa changed into a Spartan jersey. After a long negotiation, one of the best diplomatic moves of the appointed official finally succeeded and Káďa was acquired for Sparta in agreement with the ČAFC.