Czech football mourns Kadraba
Monday, August 5, 2019
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Josef Kadraba, a prolific goalscorer who helped take Czechoslovakia to the 1962 FIFA World Cup final, has died at the age of 85.
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Josef Kadraba, who played for Czechoslovakia in the 1962 World Cup final, has passed away at the age of 85. The dangerous forward won 17 caps for Czechoslovakia, scoring nine times.
Kadraba began his footballing career with Rakovník, before going on to Kladno and the two most famous Czech clubs, Sparta and Slavia. He is among the leading Czech goalscorers with 117 league goals, and made a notable name for himself with Slavia, scoring 92 goals in 114 matches.
The feared goal-getter helped take Czecholovakia to the FIFA World Cup final in Chile in 1962. Having forced his way into the team for the group stage defeat against Mexico, he scored the opening goal for his team in the 3-1 semi-final win against Yugoslavia, and started up front for Rudolf Vytlačil´s side that went down 3-1 to Brazil in the final in Santiago.
Kadraba lived in Vienna from 1967, but was a regular and popular visitor to Prague in the years until his death.