Čech voted Czech player of the year

Petr Čech has been named as the Czech Republic's footballer of the year for 2009, beating off competition from Milan Baroš and Jaroslav Plašil to pick up the award for a third time.

Petr Čech has been voted the Czech Republic's footballer of the year for 2009. The Czech national team goalkeeper braved the calf injury which has sidelined him at Chelsea FC to collect the award at a ceremony in Prague on Monday.

The 27-year-old Čech, who had been similarly honoured in 2005 and 2008, topped the annual poll of coaches, players and journalists to leave Milan Baroš, the Galatasaray AŞ striker, and Jaroslav Plašil, FC Girondins de Bordeaux's French title-winning midfielder, in second and third places. Čech, who lifted the FA Cup with Chelsea last May, tore a calf muscle in his club's 2-1 UEFA Champions League defeat by FC Internazionale Milano last week and will sit out the Czech Republic's friendly international against Scotland in Glasgow on Wednesday, together with the injured Baroš.

František Komňacký, from Czech First League leaders FK Jablonec 97, was named as coach of the year. The young player award went to Adam Hloušek, SK Slavia Praha's 21-year-old forward. AC Sparta Praha defender Tomáš Řepka, formerly of ACF Fiorentina and West Ham United FC and still going strong aged 36, received the trophy for the league's outstanding personality. The late František Veselý, a member of Czechoslovakia's UEFA European Championship-winning squad of 1976 who died last year, was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Čech voted Czech player of the year