Petr Cech, arguably the best goalkeeper the Premier League has ever seen, explains childhood transformation to Arsenal Magazine from a midfielder to a ‘keeper.
“I was an ice hockey goalkeeper and when I started playing football, I was a midfielder or left winger,” the 33-year-old Czech Republican then went on to say “I never thought of being a keeper”.
He continued to explain how it was his coach who first noticed his ability to perform well between the sticks at a very young age, and how the teams goalkeeping coach encouraged Petr to transform his position and put on the gloves for good, and not just for the odd game here and there.
“Occasionally at the end of training sessions, when you had a free game with no ‘keeper, where the deepest player acted as a goalkeeper, sometimes I went into goal because I wanted to see the difference between a big goal and a small ice hockey goal.
“My coach saw me a few times and one day, our goalkeeper didn’t come for a game. We had no ‘keeper and somebody had to play there, but nobody really wanted to. He pointed to me and said ‘I’ve seen you a few times in goal and you’ve been doing quite well. You should try it.
“I said I would do it for one match and we ended up having a very good game. The next day, when I came for the training session, the goalkeeping coach took me and said that I should stay with him.
“But then my coach didn’t want to listen to that. For about a year, I was playing outfield or in goal depending on the opponents.”
At the age of 10 however, young Petr had no choice other then to ditch the winger role and indeed stick to the nets, after badly breaking his leg, which damaged his potential as an outfield player, and ended any hope of continuing in that position.
“Then when I was about 10 I broke my leg quite badly and the recovery took time. I couldn’t run and I had pain for quite a long time.
“Being in goal means you can sit, you can lie, you can catch balls and you can still work and train. That made the biggest difference in my life because that moment defined that I stayed in goal.”
Since his devastating childhood events, Cech becoming a goalkeeper was a huge asset to the Premier League and Chelsea Football Club, where he will always remain a legend.
The 6ft 5 Arsenal summer signing has recorded a whopping 627 career appearances, playing for teams including Chelsea, Rennes, Sparta Prague and Chmel Blsany, also making 114 appearances for his national team, Czech Republic, holding the record of second most capped national player. Cech has picked up hundreds of clean sheets along the way, including 228 clean sheets for Chelsea, in 494 games in all competitions.
He holds a number of phenomenal records as a professional keeper, competing against other World Class goalkeepers, including the fewest amount of games played before reaching 100 clean sheets (180 games) and the most clean sheets in one premier league season (21), in 2004/05.
For some time, Cech held the longest time played (1,025 minutes) without conceding a goal in the Premier League, before the record was broken in 2007, lasting two years.
The Premier League Golden Glove has been handed to Cech three times in his extraordinary Premier League career, in 2004/05, 2009/10 and 2013/14.
Gooners all over the world will look and see these statistics and know they have a World Class ‘keeper, easily up there with the best the world has ever seen, in the squad, that still has some prime years left in him.
At the age of 33, Cech still cost Arsenal a hefty £10.9 million, so there’s surely a lot more to come from him, and everyone’s excited to see how he’ll perform in a Gunners shirt this season, starting with his first major game this Sunday in the Community Shield at Wembley, facing his old club, Chelsea.
