Madelon

La Madelon was a French popular song of the 1914-18 war.
I do not know how it came to be the nickname of the Czech footballer Jan Knobloch , but he was, throughout his career, known as Madelon.

Madelon joined Sparta Prague in 1927 and won the Czech national championship in 1932. He also made 18 appearances for the Czech national team (1929-33). The image is from a cigarette card by the German company Richard Greiling Zigarettenfabrikan. 

Acknowledgements  to http://collectorscrack.blogspot.co.uk

Sparta Prague 60 games unbeaten

There's been a lot in the press recently about League of Wales team The New Saints beating Ajax's record of most successive league wins (27 matches). In the period 1919-23 Sparta Prague recorded a 60 game unbeaten run.
Having lost 2-1 at home to Union Žižkov in the second match of the 1919 season, Sparta won 9 games in a row to claim the Championship of the Czech Association of Football.
They were unbeaten for 2 seasons in the Mistrovství Středočeské župy and then for a further 2 seasons in the Championship of the Czech Association of Football.

Season	P	W	D	L	F	A
1919	8	7	0	1	25	3
Play offs	3	3	0	0	17	0
1920	11	11	0	0	37	6
1921	11	11	0	0	48	8
1922	13	13	0	0	51	12
Play offs	1	1	0	0	7	0
1923	15	15	0	0	94	17

1923

http://gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/zelezna-sparta.html

Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine

The history of German domestic football is made very complex by the large number of regional competitions that fed into the National Championships. Another level of complexity emerges when we consider that there were actually clubs competing in the German National Championships that were from outside the borders of Germany itself. Prague was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy- being in Bohemia,a province of the Austrian Empire. There were a number of football clubs in Prague that were associated with the German speaking community (which was in fact diminishing rapidly during this era- at the turn of the century about 10% of the population of the city were Germans).
In 1900 Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine was founded- an association of German football clubs in Prague (which in German is Prag).
When the Deutscher Fußball Bund was established in 1900 there were 2 Prague based clubs among the founder members- the very similarly named Deutscher FC Prag and Deutscher FC Germania Prag.

The first championship was held in the 1901-02 season. The following teams took part:
Deutscher FC Germania Prag
FC Austria Prag
FC Favorit Prag
FC Hellas 1900 Prag
Fußball Sektion der Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten Prag
FuAC Sport Prag
FC Sturm Prag
Deutscher FC Prag

 Deutscher FC Germania Prag emerged as champions.

The club had been founded as Unitas Prag in 1898 by Heinrich Nonner, who had previously played for Regatta Prag and DFC Prag. For a short while the club was renamed Urania before becoming  Germania. It was  Nonner who represented the club at the first ever meeting of the Deutscher Fußball Bund.

1n 1902-03 only 3 clubs participated in the championship. It would appear that DFC Prag were selected to compete in the German national championships in rather a random manner as the Prague tournament was not conclusively decided.

In March 1903  DFC Germania Prag went out of existence.They faced financial problems and had lost their home ground, on which a church was to be built. The club relocated to Graslitz (which is now the Czech city of Kraslice).

This signalled the demise of  Der Verband der Prager Deutschen Fußball-Vereine , as only 2 active clubs remained. 

 Germany joined FIFA  in 1904, and consequently teams from outside the country were no longer allowed to play in the DFB competitions. 

Nonner

Czechoslovakia 1920

Czech international football had endured a 12 year hiatus following Bohemia's loss of international status in 1908.

The new Czechoslovakian team made their international bow at the 1920 Olympics, although the core of the squad had competed in the 1919 Inter Allied Games.
On 28th August 1920 Czechoslovakia made their international debut- beating Yugoslavia 7-0 ( scorers: Vanik (3), Janda (3) , Sedláček).
The following day Janda scored another hattrick as Norway were beaten 4-0.
In the semi final (31.08.20) France were beaten 4-1. On this occasion Otakar Škvajn  was the hattrick scorer.

The stage was set then, for Czechoslovakia to be effectively crowned World Champions in their 4th competitive international match.

Famously, of course, this was not to be the case.

The line up for the final was:

GK	Rudolf Klapka	Viktoria Žižkov
FB	Antonin Hojer	Sparta
FB	Karel Steiner	Viktoria Žižkov
HB	František Kolenatý	Sparta
HB	Karel Pešek (C)	Sparta
HB	Emil Seifert	Viktoria Žižkov
F	Josef Sedláček	Sparta
F	Antonín Janda	Sparta
F	Václav Pilát	Sparta
F	Jan Vaník	Slavia
F	Otakar Škvajn	Sparta

The 3 players who featured in the tournament but not in the final itself were : Miroslav Pospíšil, Antonín Perner (v Yugoslavia) & Jan Plaček (v France). They were all Sparta Prague players.

Plánička

František Plánička played  969 games for Slavia Prague, 76% of which ended in victory. During thirteen seasons that Plánička was at the club between 1925 and 1938, Slavia won seven league titles. He played 73 games for Czechoslovakia. The English influence on central European football was evident in one of his nicknames-  Majster Robinzonád- The Master Diver. The diving save being known as a Robinzonád after the turn of the century Southampton and England 'keeper Jack Robinson.

 Plánička was 172cm.

The picture above shows Plánička as captain of Czechoslovakia at the 1934 World Cup Final. He is shaking hands with Gianpierro Combi- the goalkeeper and captain of Italy.

The Inter-Allied Games

The Inter-Allied Games were held in Paris, June 22 to July 6, 1919, at the Pershing Stadium.
It was a multi-sport event modeled on the Olympic Games.
The football tournament featured 8 teams.

 Group A:

24.06.19	France	4	0	Romania
25.06.19	Italy	9	0	Greece
26.06.19	Italy	7	1	Romania
26.06.19	France	11	0	Greece
28.06.19	Greece	3	2	Romania
28.06.19	France	2	0	Italy

France	3	3	0	0	17	0	6
Italy	3	2	0	1	16	3	4
Greece	3	1	0	2	3	22	2
Romania	3	0	0	3	3	14	0

Group B:
  

24.06.19	Czechoslovakia	4	1	Belgium
25.06.19	USA	5	4	Canada
26.06.19	Czechoslovakia	8	2	USA
26.06.19	Belgium	5	2	Canada
28.06.19	Czechoslovakia	3	2	Canada
28.06.19	Belgium	7	0	USA

                           

             

Czechoslovakia	3	3	0	0	15	5	6
Belgium	3	2	0	1	13	6	4
USA	3	1	0	2	7	19	2
Canada	3	0	0	3	8	13	0

               

Final 29.06.19   Czechoslovakia 3-2 France

Czechoslovakia was a new state, having previously been a part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In this tournament the Czech team was the former City of Prague Representative XI, coached by Slavia Prague's Jake Madden.

France were determined to win the championship in front of their own people and bolstered their team for the final- including internationals such as Pierre Chayrigues, Eugène Langenove, Émilien Devic, Maurice Gastiger and  Paul Deydier. At half time the Czechs reorganized their line up, Janda moving out of defence into his favoured inside forward position from where he orchestrsted a comeback. France were 2-1 up with just 5 minutes left. According to the Games Committee's report: Janda, by his aggressiveness and good sportsmanship, became one of the most popular players of the tournament.

Sparta Prague 1919- 
L-R: Jaroslav Červený, Karel Káďa, František Kolenatý, Antonín Hojer, Antonín Janda, František Peyr, Miroslav Pospíšil, Václav Pilát, Antonín Fivébr, Josef Sedláček, Jan Plaček

Greece were on the end of 2 fierce beatings in which they conceded 20 goals, but they managed a win over Romania.

Antonín Janda-Očko- inspired the Czech comeback in the final.

French goalkeeper Pierre Chayrigues fractured his shoulder and pelvis in the final and was out of the game for 2 years.

The Czechoslovakia  squad:

Peyr (Sparta) , Klapka (Viktoria Žižkov), Pospisil (Sparta), Hojer (Sparta), Cerveny (Sparta) , Pesek (Sparta),  Fivebr (Sparta), Loos (Slavia), Vlk (?), Prosek (?), Vanik (Slavia) , Pilat (Sparta), Janda (Sparta), Sedlacek (Sparta).

Players in bold type appeared in the 1920 Olympic squad.

Vanik  and  Sedlacek had previously represented Austria.

The full text of the Games Committee's report is here:  https://archive.org/details/cu31924014114353