Petr Becomes Czech Footballer of the Year for Ninth Time

“The year 2016 was filled with success not only for my teams, but even myself personally. I fulfilled several of my dreams, in particular to reach the Premier League clean sheet record. I even got into the Guinness Book of Records, which is something I really hadn’t expected,” said Petr on the stage, immediately after being awarded the prize.

“I think 2016 has generally been a good year. Arsenal came second in the English league which was the best placement in ten years. On top of that, I won the Golden Glove for goalies with the highest number of clean sheets. Our national team qualified for EURO which per se might not have gone totally to plan but was a great success nevertheless,” stated Petr.

Despite having seized the trophy eight times before, Petr has never stopped to value it. “You can never get tired of these wins. As your age grows and – in my case – after 17 years in professional football, you try to do your best to make each year not the one where your shape starts to deteriorate. And so I’m really happy about this. I’d like to thank everyone who’s kept their fingers crossed and even those who haven’t, since that only makes me work harder,” added Petr.

Results: 1. Petr Čech (Arsenal) 525, 2. Vladimir Darida (Hertha Berlin) 413, 3. Borek Dockal (Sparta) 303, 4. Pavel Kaderabek (Hoffenheim) 261, 5. David Lafata (Sparta) 145.