The Retirement of Petr Cech: A Goalkeeper Legend

The ways in which Petr Cech almost flew to block some incredible goals will remain in everyone's memory forever. After being in the soccer spotlight for over twenty years, the Czech goalkeeper is putting an end to his career.

People who love the goalkeeper position and soccer fans in general, were able to enjoy the tremendous skills of Petr Cech. This emblematic player from the Czech Republic and the Premier League recently decided to hang up his gloves. We’ll review his incredible sports career in this article.

At the end of his career, people could easily identify Cech by the helmet he wore every time he was on the pitch. He wears it because he suffered a depressed skull fracture due to a knee strike to his head in October 2006. This accident forced him to undergo surgery and kept him away from the soccer pitch for several months.

After this incident, Petr Cech was able to reinstate himself in the soccer world elite and achieve great success without any issues. Soccer fans will remember him because of his modest and confident style, his conquests and the spectacular blocks he performed for so many years.

Petr Cech: career and most important titles

He retired from professional soccer at 36 years of age. He played in the ultimate soccer team in England for 15 years; a team that many consider as one of the best teams in the world. Petr was also able to participate and win most of the important international tournaments.

His first steps as a professional soccer player were in the Sparta Prague, a first-division team in Czech soccer. In 2001, when he was only 19 years old, he broke the record for most minutes without conceding a goal in the professional league of that country.

He started playing for the Stade Rennais in the summer of 2002. The team paid a total of 5.5 million euros to hire him. His great performances in a team that fought for his stay resulted in a transfer to the Chelsea Football Club in 2004.

Chelsea, the ultimate glory in Europe and England

Since his arrival, Petr Cech experienced being the highest-paid goalkeeper in the history of the London club. Under the leadership of the Portuguese coach, Mourinho, he won his first title in the season league of 2004/2005. He managed to defend his goal on 21 occasions and only conceded 15 goals throughout the whole competition. In other words, he demonstrated phenomenal performance.

His team managed to defend the championship in the next tournament. Once again, Petr Cech had an outstanding performance. He only conceded 22 goals in the 34 matches he played in. He would also become the champion in the Premier League 2009/2010 and in 2014/2015.

Cech won the most important title of his career in the Champions League 2011/2012. Even though Chelsea fired their coach midway through the season, the English team reached the final in Munich, against Bayern.

The Czech goalkeeper had his dream night. Along with his Ivorian forward, Didier Drogba, he won another star for his club. Apart from a great performance in the game, he crowned the night by blocking two penalties in the decisive round. This way, Chelsea got its first title in the UCL and Cech was the fourth player in his country to win it.

The switch to Arsenal

After so many hits in Chelsea, Petr Cech continued his career in another London club, Arsenal, in exchange for 10 million pounds. While he wasn’t able to win a league title, he did win two Community Shields and an FA Cup. He also broke a record in the Premier League–a goalkeeper with 181 clean sheets.

In his last season, during his farewell match as a professional, Cech had the opportunity to win the first international title of the Gunners. However, he lost in the UEFA Europe League finals against Chelsea, his former club, by a striking 4-1.

Petr Cech in his national team

Wearing the Czech selection shirt, Petr Cech played 142 matches over the course of 14 years. In the course of this period, he played a U-20 World Cup (Argentina 2001) in which he reached the quarter-finals and another World Cup in Germany 2006. He was eliminated in the first phase of that Cup.

He also had the opportunity to play four Euro Cups. His best performance in this competition coincided with the best historical placement of his selection in the tournament. In Portugal 2004, Cech only conceded four goals in five matches. The Czech Republic got an unprecedented pass to the semifinals, in which they lost against Greece, the champion.

This brief summary definitely allows us to claim we’ve witnessed one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the Chelsea and the Czech selection, the two teams that got to enjoy him the most. We’re also sure that anyone who loves soccer was marveled by a reaction from Cech at least once.