Václav Daněk

Who is Václav Daněk?

Václav Daněk is a retired Czech football player. He played 22 matches for Czechoslovakia and scored 9 goals. In total, he scored 197 league goals in 402 games.

In his country he played for Baník Ostrava and witnessed the golden era in the club's history, contributing to two Czechoslovak First League championships. His strong temper contributed towards him not being picked for the Czechoslovakia squad that reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, when he was at the peak of his career in Austria, playing for FC Tirol Innsbruck because of discrepancies with coach Jozef Vengloš who preferred players like Tomáš Skuhravý, Ivo Knoflíček and Stanislav Griga.

Despite all these, he was selected Best Player in the Austrian league and finished top scorer three years in a row which allowed him to finish third in 1991's European Golden Boot contest sponsored by the French football magazine "France Football".

After the World Cup in Italy, where the Czechoslovakian team performed very well, Vengloš was replaced by Milan Máčala who gave Daněk his full confidence, making him the team's new standard bearer and first pick-up choice for the attack.