If I had accepted Real Madrid’s offer, I would have put my whole family at risk
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Jan Berger was born on 27 November 1955 in Prague. He spent his childhood in Břevnov, where he also started to get acquainted with the football as a young boy. At the age of ten he started playing football for the local TJ Břevnov, where he played until 1976. Thanks to coach Tomáš Pospíchal, he moved to the then TJ Škoda Plzeň, where he gained experience in the highest football competition. He served his military service in Dukla Prague and from there he moved to Sparta Prague. Here he experienced the greatest football successes, both on the club and international scene. In 1980, he won a bronze medal at the European Championships in Italy and in the same year he became the Olympic football winner at the 1980 Summer Olympics (LOH) in Moscow. In 1982, he competed at the World Championships in Spain, but the Czechoslovak national team finished in the preliminary group. In the same year he was arrested for drunkenly insulting the then president Gustáv Husák. He spent five weeks in Ruzyně Prison and received a four-year suspended sentence. In 1983, he entered the U Apolináře alcohol treatment centre. After a year’s break, he started playing football again and in 1984 became the Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year. After two years he took up an offer to play abroad and went to Switzerland, where he first played for FC Zürich and later for other Swiss teams. After returning to the Czech Republic, he played football in lower competitions. During his Swiss engagement he started to work as a coach and in later years he led the youth team of AC Sparta Prague. At the time of recording in 2025 he was living in Prague.
