Josef Bican
Encyclopedia
Josef "Pepi" Bican was a Czech
-Austria
n football
forward
. It is estimated by respected footballing statistics page RSSSF
that Bican scored around 800 goals in all competitive matches, not including friendly games. This would make him the all-time most prolific scorer in football history known to date.
He was a member of the Austrian Wunderteam
of the 1930s and was the season's highest scorer in the whole of Europe on five separate occasions. Bican had the ability to play with both feet, he also had considerable pace and was able to run 100 metres
in 10.8 seconds, which was as fast as many sprinters of the time. The IFFHS
awarded Bican the "Golden Ball" as the greatest goalscorer of the last century.
In the domestic leagues, Bican scored an incredible 1392 goals in 844 games.
to Ludmila and František Bican. Ludmila was Viennese Czech and František came from Sedlice
in Southern Bohemia
. Josef's father František was a footballer who played for Hertha Vienna. He went to fight in World War I
and returned uninjured. However, František was to die at the age of just 30 in 1921 because he refused an operation to treat a kidney
injury sustained in a football match. His mother worked in a restaurant kitchen. The family's poverty
meant that Bican had to play football without any shoes, which helped him hone his ball control skills. Bican attended the Jan Amos Komenský school, a Czech school in Vienna. Four years after his father's death in 1925, twelve-year old Bican started to play for the Hertha Vienna junior team, Hertha Vienna II. When he was 18, Bican was spotted by Rapid Vienna
, who were a big club in the city at the time.
In 1937, Bican left Vienna to join Czech club Slavia Prague. He played for Slavia throughout World War II
. In eight league seasons he would score 328 goals, including 57 in 24 matches one particular year.
He was in the leagues that he played the top-scorer 12 times in his 27 years career and Europe's top scorer in five consecutive seasons, from 1939/40 to 1943/44 while the most of players and the physically healthful youngmen were in the war.
In the devastated Europe after the war, several of Europe's
biggest clubs should have wanted Bican. Juventus offered him handsome terms to join them, but he refused, supposedly after he was advised that Communists
might take over Italy
. He stayed in Prague
and, ironically, the Communists came to power there in 1948. Bican refused to join the Communist Party, just as he had refused to join the Nazi Party in Austria.
Bican tried to improve his standing with the Communists by joining steel works Železárny Vítkovice. In 1951, he joined FC Hradec Králové, but, on 1 May 1953, the Communist Party forced him to leave the city and, therefore, the club. After being forced to leave, he returned to Slavia Prague, or, as it was known then, Dynamo Prague. He finally retired from playing, still at Slavia, at the age of 42 in 1955. He was the oldest player in the league at that time. During this time Bican briefly managed Hradec Králové and Slavia and then was appointed manager of Pilsen.
in a 2-2 draw against Scotland
. He went on to play for them at the 1934 World Cup, when the Austrian Wunderteam
reached the semi-finals. His solitary goal in the tournament came in extra-time in the Austrians 3-2 victory over France.
At the time Bican was playing for Slavia Prague, he applied for Czech citizenship. However, when he eventually became a Czech citizen, he discovered that a clerical error meant he couldn't play at the World Cup in 1938. In total, he scored 34 goals in 34 international matches for 3 teams (Austria, Czechoslovakia
and Bohemia & Moravia
). His final national team appearance was for Czechoslovakia in a 3-1 defeat against Bulgaria
on 4 September 1949.
However, his success did have its downside. Other members of the team became jealous of the tall, handsome Bican's success. He was often called abusive names, such as "Austrian bastard".
In the spring of 1968, Bican was told that he would be allowed to take a coaching job abroad. He impressed the Belgian
team Tongeren
and they hired him as a coach, where he had some success taking them from Division 4 to Division 2.
Around this time, Pelé
was heading for his "1000th" goal and many journalists were looking for another player who had scored a thousand goals. Former Austria
n player "Bimbo" Binder
suggested Bican, who he claimed had scored 5000 goals. When reporters asked Bican why he hadn't made more of a fuss over his goalscoring feats, he simply said "who'd have believed me if I said I'd scored five times as many goals as Pelé?!" However to score this 5000 goals he should have kept an average of 185 goals/year along all his 27 years of career, a fact that would be extremely unlikely to go unnoticed, so counting league goals Bican scored 643.
Josef "Pepi" Bican spent the last few months of his life in hospital with heart problems. He had hoped to be home for Christmas
, but died less than 2 weeks before that, at the age of 88.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
-Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
forward
Striker
Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...
. It is estimated by respected footballing statistics page RSSSF
Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation is an international amateur organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football...
that Bican scored around 800 goals in all competitive matches, not including friendly games. This would make him the all-time most prolific scorer in football history known to date.
He was a member of the Austrian Wunderteam
Wunderteam
Wunderteam was the name given to the Austria national football team of the 1930s. Led by manager Hugo Meisl, the team had an unbeaten streak of 14 games between April 1931 and December 1932. The style of the team was based on the Scottish school of football that focused on quick passing introduced...
of the 1930s and was the season's highest scorer in the whole of Europe on five separate occasions. Bican had the ability to play with both feet, he also had considerable pace and was able to run 100 metres
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
in 10.8 seconds, which was as fast as many sprinters of the time. The IFFHS
International Federation of Football History & Statistics
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics is an organization that chronicles the history and records of Association football. It was founded on 27 March 1984 at Leipzig by Dr. Alfredo Pöge with the blessings of general secretary of the FIFA at the time, Dr. Helmut Käser...
awarded Bican the "Golden Ball" as the greatest goalscorer of the last century.
In the domestic leagues, Bican scored an incredible 1392 goals in 844 games.
Early life
Bican was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to Ludmila and František Bican. Ludmila was Viennese Czech and František came from Sedlice
Sedlice
Sedlice may refer to several places in Czech Republic and Slovakia.*Sedlice, Pelhřimov District, Czech Republic*Sedlice, Příbram District, Czech Republic*Sedlice, Strakonice District, Czech Republic*Sedlice, Prešov District, Slovakia...
in Southern Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. Josef's father František was a footballer who played for Hertha Vienna. He went to fight in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and returned uninjured. However, František was to die at the age of just 30 in 1921 because he refused an operation to treat a kidney
Kidney
The kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...
injury sustained in a football match. His mother worked in a restaurant kitchen. The family's poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
meant that Bican had to play football without any shoes, which helped him hone his ball control skills. Bican attended the Jan Amos Komenský school, a Czech school in Vienna. Four years after his father's death in 1925, twelve-year old Bican started to play for the Hertha Vienna junior team, Hertha Vienna II. When he was 18, Bican was spotted by Rapid Vienna
SK Rapid Wien
The Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...
, who were a big club in the city at the time.
Club career
When Bican first joined Rapid, he received 150 schillings, but, by the age of 20, Rapid wanted to keep him so much that they paid him 600 schillings.In 1937, Bican left Vienna to join Czech club Slavia Prague. He played for Slavia throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In eight league seasons he would score 328 goals, including 57 in 24 matches one particular year.
He was in the leagues that he played the top-scorer 12 times in his 27 years career and Europe's top scorer in five consecutive seasons, from 1939/40 to 1943/44 while the most of players and the physically healthful youngmen were in the war.
In the devastated Europe after the war, several of Europe's
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
biggest clubs should have wanted Bican. Juventus offered him handsome terms to join them, but he refused, supposedly after he was advised that Communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
might take over Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He stayed in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and, ironically, the Communists came to power there in 1948. Bican refused to join the Communist Party, just as he had refused to join the Nazi Party in Austria.
Bican tried to improve his standing with the Communists by joining steel works Železárny Vítkovice. In 1951, he joined FC Hradec Králové, but, on 1 May 1953, the Communist Party forced him to leave the city and, therefore, the club. After being forced to leave, he returned to Slavia Prague, or, as it was known then, Dynamo Prague. He finally retired from playing, still at Slavia, at the age of 42 in 1955. He was the oldest player in the league at that time. During this time Bican briefly managed Hradec Králové and Slavia and then was appointed manager of Pilsen.
International career
On 29 November 1933, aged 20 years and 64 days, Bican made his debut for AustriaAustria national football team
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....
in a 2-2 draw against Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
. He went on to play for them at the 1934 World Cup, when the Austrian Wunderteam
Wunderteam
Wunderteam was the name given to the Austria national football team of the 1930s. Led by manager Hugo Meisl, the team had an unbeaten streak of 14 games between April 1931 and December 1932. The style of the team was based on the Scottish school of football that focused on quick passing introduced...
reached the semi-finals. His solitary goal in the tournament came in extra-time in the Austrians 3-2 victory over France.
At the time Bican was playing for Slavia Prague, he applied for Czech citizenship. However, when he eventually became a Czech citizen, he discovered that a clerical error meant he couldn't play at the World Cup in 1938. In total, he scored 34 goals in 34 international matches for 3 teams (Austria, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia national football team
The Czechoslovakia national football team was the national association football team of Czechoslovakia from 1922 to 1993. At the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the team was participating in UEFA qualifying Group 4 for the 1994 World Cup; it completed this campaign under the name...
and Bohemia & Moravia
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
). His final national team appearance was for Czechoslovakia in a 3-1 defeat against Bulgaria
Bulgaria national football team
The FIFA Bulgaria national football team is an association football team fielded by the Bulgarian Football Union, a member association of UEFA. The team's home ground is Vasil Levski in Sofia and Luboslav Penev is in charge manager after replacement of Lothar Matthäus...
on 4 September 1949.
However, his success did have its downside. Other members of the team became jealous of the tall, handsome Bican's success. He was often called abusive names, such as "Austrian bastard".
Life after retirement
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
team Tongeren
K.S.K. Tongeren
Koninklijke Sportkring Tongeren is a Belgian association football club based in Tongeren, currently playing in the third division. It was founded in 1908 as Cercle Sportif Tongrois. It received the matricule n°54. The club merged with K. Patria F.C. Tongeren to become K.S.K. Tongeren in 1969. ...
and they hired him as a coach, where he had some success taking them from Division 4 to Division 2.
Around this time, Pelé
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
was heading for his "1000th" goal and many journalists were looking for another player who had scored a thousand goals. Former Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n player "Bimbo" Binder
Franz Binder
Franz Binder was an Austrian football player and coach.-Club career:Nicknamed Bimbo, Binder was a prolific goalscorer who played for SK Rapid Wien. He won the national Austrian championship four times and was three times top goalscorer in Austrian league...
suggested Bican, who he claimed had scored 5000 goals. When reporters asked Bican why he hadn't made more of a fuss over his goalscoring feats, he simply said "who'd have believed me if I said I'd scored five times as many goals as Pelé?!" However to score this 5000 goals he should have kept an average of 185 goals/year along all his 27 years of career, a fact that would be extremely unlikely to go unnoticed, so counting league goals Bican scored 643.
Josef "Pepi" Bican spent the last few months of his life in hospital with heart problems. He had hoped to be home for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, but died less than 2 weeks before that, at the age of 88.
Trivia
- During his youth career, one time that his mother, Ludmila, came to watch him, she was so annoyed about a foul her son had been on the receiving end of that she ran onto the pitch and beat the opponent with her umbrella.
- It was not only his incredible goalscoring feats that endeared Bican to the footballing public. During his time with Slavia, crowds used to number their hundreds just to watch him train because Bican's training sessions were often more like circus acts - and fans were happy to pay a few korunas to watch him. Whilst the rest of the squad practiced routines or ran laps, Bican would turn-up with a hamper of empty bottles, which he would proceed to balance on the top of the flat wooden crossbar, spaced about one foot apart. He then stepped back to the edge of the penalty-area, put down a bunch of balls and took aim. One by one from twenty yards Bican would knock the bottles off the bar with his shots, and on a good day - the story goes - he would maybe miss one in ten.