AC Sparta Praha

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"Sparta Praha" redirects here; for the ice hockey team, see HC Sparta Praha.

AC Sparta Praha (English: Sparta Prague) is the most popular and most successful Czech football club and one of the most successful clubs in Central and Eastern Europe. Sparta was long the main source for Czechoslovakia's and after the partition for Czech Republic national football team, however lately this has ceased to be the case, as the best Czech players almost all now play in higher-paying foreign leagues. There is a number of outstanding players which played for the team in the history. Sparta plays at Prague's Toyota Arena (called Letná Stadium).

Contents

1 Brief history
2 Club symbols
3 Major trophies
4 Famous players
5 Current squad
6 Training camp
7 Popular culture
8 External links

Brief history

The club was founded in 1893. For the first time, in 1906, Sparta played in their typical dark red jerseys (one of club's symbols). Beginning from 1919, Sparta got its nickname "Iron Sparta". In 1975 it was the first (and last) time Sparta fell from 1st League.

Historical names:

1893 — Athletic Club Královské Vinohrady
1894 — Athletic Club Sparta
1948 — Athletic Club Sparta Bubeneč
1949 — Sokol Bratrství Sparta
1951 — Sparta ČKD Sokolovo
1953 — TJ Spartak Praha Sokolovo
1965 — TJ Sparta ČKD Praha
1990 — TJ Sparta Praha
1991 — AC Sparta Praha
1993 — AC Sparta Praha fotbal, a.s.

Club symbols

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Colours of Sparta

The name Sparta was inspired by the fighting spirit and courage of the people from the ancient city of Sparta. From the very beginning, the colours of Sparta were blue (symbolizing Europe), red (symbolizing the royal city), and yellow (together with red, the official colours of Prague). In 1906, one of the members of the committee brought (from his trip to England) jerseys of Arsenal London. From that time, Sparta has typically played in their red (or, to be more precise, dark red or maroon) colours. Another symbol of Sparta is the big "S" (Sparta); thus, Sparta and Slavia Prague are usually collectively called the Prague "S".

Major trophies

Mitropa Cup Winner (3 times): 1927, 1935, 1964
Czech Champion (9 times): 2005, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1994
Czechoslovakia´s Champion (24 times): 1993, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1967, 1965, 1954, 1952, 1948, 1946, 1944, 1939, 1938, 1936, 1932, 1927, 1926, 1922, 1919 and 1912.
Czech Football Cup Winner (3 times): 2006, 2004, 1996
Czechoslovakian Football Cup Winner (12 times): 1992, 1989, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1972, 1964, 1946, 1944, 1943, 1909

Famous players

Outstanding former Sparta players include:

Current squad

As of January 24, 2006: | width="1%" | |bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="48%"| |}

Players out on loan

Jan Holenda (at FC Slovan Liberec)
Milan Pacanda (at FC Wacker Tirol)
Pavel Pergl (at 1. FC Dynamo Dresden)
Jan Svátek (at FC Viktoria Plzeň)
Petr Voříšek (at FC Superfund Pasching)

Training camp

Interior of Toyota Arena at the start of a game, Nov 2002

Except Toyota Arena in Letná district - Sparta use a new soccer center in Strahov Stadium (the largest stadium in the world) whose space was rebuilt to 8 football fields (6 fields of standard sizes and 2 futsal).

Popular culture

The Czech movie Horem pádem (Up and Down) takes the culture of Sparta fandom as one of its subjects.

External links

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