He may have been a West Ham United player for just two-and-a-half years, but something about Vladimír Coufal suggests he has been a Hammer for life.
The Czech Republic international possesses so many of the qualities that the Hammers hold up as a Club, most notably founder Arnold Hills’ mantra to ‘never give up’.
As a teenager, Coufal was released by his hometown club, Banik Ostrava, for purportedly lacking the physical capabilities to play top-level football.
Undeterred and invigorated by the pushback, the 17-year-old joined amateur club ŠSK Bílovec and began his journey to the Premier League and the UEFA European Championship finals.
At 18, he made his professional debut for Hlučín. At 19, he made his Czech First League bow with reigning champions Slovan Liberec.
Coufal would spend six seasons with Liberec, for whom he made 158 appearances, scored six goals and became a full international when he debuted against Qatar in November 2017, a month after his 25th birthday.
The following summer, 2018, the defender joined Slavia Prague, where he went on to win back-to-back First League titles and a Czech Cup, playing alongside a midfielder named Tomáš Souček.
In October 2020, he followed compatriot and friend Souček to east London when he completed a transfer to West Ham United.
Coufal’s debut season in Claret and Blue was a resounding success, as he tallied seven assists and nine clean sheets to help the Hammers finish sixth in the Premier League and qualify for Europe.
After starting all five of his country’s matches on their way to the quarter-finals of the COVID-delayed UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, the 30-year-old played regularly as West Ham reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals and qualified for Europe again through a seventh-place league finish.
The image of a shirtless Coufal ignoring thousands of pitch-invading Eintracht Frankfurt fans to acknowledge the Claret and Blue Army at Deutsche Bank Park is one which further endeared the Czech to his Club’s supporters, as did those of the player and his wife Hana visiting the site of the Hammers’ former home in Upton Park.
The Irons’ current predicament is hurting the No5, who helped his team to valuable victories over Everton and Nottingham Forest, and creditable draws with Newcastle United and Chelsea, only to be ruled out of recent matches with a heel injury.
With the Club he has fallen in love with struggling, Coufal is eager to return to action soon and do everything he can to lead them up the table to safety.
My highlights as a West Ham United player have been many in my two-and-a-half years at the Club.
Initially, it was settling in well in the Premier League, our incredible first season and what we achieved was a historic moment because after a long time we reached Europa League spot in the table.
I had many assists in those first two seasons, personally, too.
We also played well in the Europa League and reached the semi-finals and it is still hurting because we wanted to go to the final so hopefully this year, we can do it in the Europa Conference League.
The atmosphere at London Stadium is amazing, hearing 60,000 people singing ‘Bubbles’, it's an incredible feeling.
I also love the atmosphere at the away stadiums. You know, before I moved to the Premier League, I just saw these stadiums on the TV, but now I can play in the same stadiums and against these great players, so it's amazing.
Another thing I like is the product of the Premier League is like a marketing bomb! To be honest, for me, it's something unreal, how it is working, with all these people, all the players and all the fans, you can see how the country is living with the football, how they are connected with the Premier League. It's something amazing. I don't know how you built these relationships, but it's something amazing.
It’s something I would like to achieve in my own country. Of course, Czech Republic is a small country with a small football fan base, but I would like to achieve something not so big but something the like Premier League and the English nation there.
The passion of the West Ham fans is something amazing, of course.
It has two sides, because when you play well it is something amazing and you can feel the support on every corner of London and people stop you ask about autographs or for a photo
But when you play like we have played in the season, not so good and when we don't have good results and we are down in the table, it's a second side and people ask you why you don't win and why you are playing like you are playing.
They say ‘you have to win’ and we know that and we also want to win, but on the pitch it’s difficult because of course your opponents also want to win, so that’s the second side of it.
When you are our situation, every win is very important, and you have to earn it.
When you win with a clean sheet or when you are dominant in the game and control the game, and it’s not just a lucky win, it is very important.
When you are confident, too, it is much easier to do good things on the pitch.
Our wins over Everton and Nottingham Forest were massive for us all – for the team, for the players, for the staff, for the fans and everyone associated with the Club.
It was very important to get those wins because you could feel the tension before the games and there was a bit of nervousness around the place.
After both games, I felt a huge relief when we had won.
To be honest, I have not looked at the Premier League for months because I don’t want to see West Ham United in or around the relegation zone. I don’t check the table when we are in this position.
For me personally, this season has not gone as I had hoped so far.
I was in the team at the start, but then I was on the bench for a few games before the World Cup.
Of course, the second part of the season started well for me but obviously the first part of the season wasn’t good because we didn't play well as a team. It's very important for me and also for the manager.
When you play well, you don’t make too many changes to the starting XI, but when you are losing you are also looking for the right solution in many positions and who should play where. For the manager, it is very difficult.
I didn’t play for one or two months and it was very tough for me and now I’ve had an injury, but I hope to be back in the starting XI soon.
When I am not playing, I try to motivate the guys to keep working to play well.
I am always a team player and the team’s success is always in the first place for me, so it’s very important to keep the guys motivated and keep my fingers crossed for us winning.
To be honest, for me personally it is more important to make some assists than keep a clean sheet.
I shouldn't say that because I'm defender, but I was always an attack-minded player.
I like attacking, I prefer to win 4-3 than 1-0, so I like to make assists and I'm really struggling this season because I created some opportunities but unfortunately we didn't score from them, but I hopefully we can keep on from this and I will add some assists by the end of the season.
My first season was great. Almost from every cross we scored, so it was like amazing, but this season we didn't score as many goals as we wanted, so it's a bit difficult.
But, as I said, I am always a team player and for me, the team’s success is always the first ahead of the personal stuff.
Of course, everyone in the Club is trying and looking for the reason why we haven't got the results so far.
Of course, it's difficult because in the previous two seasons we played in a similar way and we got the results.
This season we are struggling with scoring goals and getting the right results that we want.
To be honest, I don't know why because we still have same training process and our meetings are still the same so I don't know where to find this right reason, but we are trying to find it we are trying to keep working hard in the sessions and hopefully we will get away from this mud as soon as possible!
