West Ham United midfielder Tomáš Souček has won the Czech Footballer of the Year award for the third time in his career, with his Hammers teammate Vladimír Coufal finishing third in the rankings.
Souček, 29, who also picked up the prize in 2019 and 2020, was again recognised for his string of fine performances for the Hammers and on the international scene during 2023, which saw him make nine appearances en route to UEFA Europa Conference League glory in Prague.
Tomáš Souček - the best Czech footballer of the year 2023.
— Czech Football National Team (@ceskarepre_eng) March 18, 2024
Martin Vitík - the best Czech youth footballer of the year 2023.
Klára Cahynová - the best Czech women's footballer of the year 2023. pic.twitter.com/k6aevlXpDG
In total, he scored 12 competitive goals for Club and country during the last calendar year, and while he helped West Ham to a 14th place finish in the Premier League last term, and to their current seventh-place standing in 2023/24, he captained the Czech Republic to qualification for this summer’s upcoming 2024 UEFA European Championship in Germany.
The Irons’ No28 won a vote cast by members including Czech First League coaches, captains, internationals with at least 30 starts, previous winners and members of the media and the Czech FA, by a margin of 422 points, ahead of Ladislav Krejčí and Coufal.
Record holder Petr Čech (nine), Ivo Viktor (five) and Pavel Nedvěd (four) are now the only three players to have won the award more times than Souček, who picked up his latest prize at a ceremony in Prague.
He will now quickly turn his attention to increasing his tally of 66 international caps in the last bout of action before Euro 2024, in friendlies against Norway in Oslo on Friday 22 March, and Armenia in Prague on Tuesday 26 March.
