We could quite easily be talking about Pele, the great Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Romario or even the phenominal rate Leonel Messi finds the back of the net - but no - this accolade goes quite resoundingly to one; Josef "Pepi" Bican.
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Fondly remembered in his home nations -
though sadly on a worldwide level: surely one
of football's greatest ever forgotten sons. |
This Vienna-born, war-time professional footballer is accounted for by many as eclipsing any strike rate records known to the history of our game. Eligible for both Austria and Czechoslovakia, he scored an un-heard of 395 goals in
just 217 leaue games. It was totalled that across his 27 year - part war time - professional career he amounted to a monumental 607 league goals in only 406 appearences.
All well and good then, ludicrous infact; the real question must then be:
Why have we heard nothing about this sure-fire gem of the footballing game?
Josef was born into a working class family amidst the beginnings of World War 1, his Father Frantisek, a keen footballer, was called to leave his club - Hertha Vienna - and fight for his country. Returning home uninjured it proceeded a tragic moment in young Bican Jr's life as following a kidney injury playing for Vienna and the refusal to accept an operation, he'd lose his life at the tragic age of 30.
With no figure to idolise 7 year old Josef Bican and his family were left in extreme poverty, with barely any money to fund the son's obvious talent. It's reported Bican regularly played football with bare feet, to the extent his control and touch had become quite exquisite.
At 12 though, Josef got his first real break whilst playing for his school. His father's ex-side Hertha Vienna took him into their second team and he began playing at amateur level. Not long after his 18th birthday, Bican was causing waves and got snapped up by Rapid Vienna - not only the biggest side in Vienna but the whole of Austria at the time.
Boy did he pay back the 150 schillings spent on him that day.
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Sheer power and athleticism - at a time
when records were unknown. |
He reached 52 league goals in his first real crack at the 'big-time' in under 50 appearences, the Vienna side were understandably taken aback by just what they had come across. The forward was powerfully built, very much a physical player but with the acceleration to cover 100m in 10.8 seconds, in the 1930's - it was quite remarkable.
The accolades European and Worldwide started to roll in, Czech communists wanted to use Josef as some kind of puppet via propaganda - to show the strength and ambition of their nation - through this magnificent athlete, by far and around the best at what he did.
Links too were made to the Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas, only to be denied by humble Bican; the shining lights of Juventus approached post-war only for the forward to decline, fearing an Italian communist takeover...
Who knows what
might have been?
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Awarded the 'Golden Ball' in
January 2000 for being recognised as
the great goal scorer of the century. |
Following his quite ground-breaking stay in Prague, he had a season each with FC Vitkovice, FC Hradec Kralove and Dynamo Prague - on each and every occasion continuing to dominate the goal scoring charts - his goals-to-games ratio would finish higher than 1.0 in practically every season he'd set foot in at the end of his career.
Even in his final term, having reached the grand old age of 42 he was outscoring younger Austrians for fun.
For me it is quite sad that a player of such magnitude, such talent and someone who quite clearly led by a country mile his field for almost two decades does not get anywhere
near the level of recognition his sheer records alone deserve. It was a quote around 13 years after his retirement, just around the time the great Pele had notched his 1000th career goal - that Bican's former Austrian teammate Franz Binder suggested Josef Bican had scored as many as 5000 goals;
"Who'd have believed me if I said I'd scored five times as many goals as Pelé?!" - he famously retorted,
Looking at those records, it would have been hard to even argue with those astonishing figures mentioned by Binder.
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Quite a card to add
to any child's collection. |
Bican's goals-to-game ratio finished at 1.52 - given Pele didn't even break the 1.0 mark - well, you can just see for yourself.
Including amateur and youth level matches, his career read: Played 918 Scored 1468 - quite mesmorising.
Of course there are those who will always argue there are reasons for such characters never truly achieving greatness because of their time periods. Josef Bican refused to become subject to national puppetry and continued to do what he loved best through World War II and play football, of course the level of opposition would have dropped with top athletes fighting for their countries - it takes nothing against anything this man achieved - absolutely nothing.
It is unerringly sad that footballers such as this who really paved the way for 'legend' status in our game are now all but forgotten. Bican is not alone, Binder who was mentioned earlier is also reported to have broken the 1000 career goal barrier while before the likes of Pele and co Brazilians were able to play the game as Arthur Friedenreich is said to hold a record of 1329 in 1239 games.
Records get lost over time, of course getting on for nearly a century ago there was a lack of interest, a lack of ability and a lack of technology to record such unbelievable feets. These supreme sportsmen were no slouches though, as Bican's physique suggested - he'd give Premier League defenders of today a run for their money.
Bican retired a local and national hero, his goals for the Austrian and then Czech national sides are fantastic, even with a lack of opportunity in big competitions, he proved his ability on the big stage.
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The magnificent memorial
of the great man in
Prague. |
It was good to discover that following the overthrowing of the communists in 1989 he was handed the freedom of Prague, such recolection should have been a given. A quite picture-esque tombstone stands tall and proud above his place of death in Vyserhad Cemetry, Prague - to be seen by all, to inspire kids, grown men and anyone that from any modest background greatness can be accomplished.
Those who had the privilige to watch him though won't need any tombstone or historical article to remember the great "Pepi" - but only the what must be fabulous memories of the performances he put on for his supporters, across both the training ground - where he famously knocked glass bottled off the crossbar one by one - and of course the stadiums would last a lifetime and rightly so.
So next time Leonal Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo get dragged up against Pele, Diego Maradona or anyone else for the mantle of "Greatest of all time" - throw a shout in for Josef Bican, undoubtedly the greatest, most forgotten man in footballs' history.
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