Born in Prague, František Plánička spent most of his life and footballer career in the Czech capital. The beginning phase of his career saw him play for clubs such as Slovan Praha VII, Union VII, Staroměstský SK Olympia, and SK Bubeneč. His professional football career began with Slavia Prague, for whom he played from 1923 to 1938. This was also one of the most successful periods in the club's history.
Plánička won 7 league titles with Slavia, making a total of 196 league appearances during this successful phase.
A look at his overall appearance records shows that the Czechoslovakian goalkeeper made a total of 969 appearances, of which Slavia won an astounding 742. Although his height of 1.72m (5 ft 8 in) being a below-average height for a goalkeeper, Plánička silenced his doubters by providing himself to be an effective shot stopper. His acrobatic playing style also earned him the nickname " The Cat of Prague".
Coming to other competitions, Slavia had reached the 1932 Mitropa Cup semi-finals. Although they beat Juventus 4-0 in the first-leg, a number of controversial actions by Slavia players in the second leg led to spectators eventually throwing stones on the pitch. One of the projectiles hit Plánička, causing him a serious injury. Although Juventus had a 2-0 lead, Slavia abandoned the pitch and the game stopped, and this led to their disqualification from the tournament.
Plánička also won six Bohemia cups ( 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1932, and 1935) with Slavia, while the Mitropa Cup was finally clinched in 1938.
An eternal international legacy
Plánička's international debut was on 17th January 1926 in a 1–3 loss against Italy. He later helped them qualify to the 1934 World Cup, and was the team's captain in the tournament. Czechoslovakia beat Romania in the first round and then Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Germany awaited them in the semis. The Czech took the lead early in the match, but Germany equalized in the second half when Plánička could not react to a long shot by Rudolf Noack. However, they regained the lead and scored a third goal late in the game to win 3–1 and advance to the final.
On 10th June 1934, Czechoslovakia played the final against hosts Italy, who also had one of the great goalkeepers of the time, Gianpiero Combi, as its captain. Despite taking the lead in the 71st minute with a goal by Antonín Puč, the Italian's scored back ten minutes later through Raimundo Orsi. Angelo Schiavio scored in extra time to help Italy become World Champions. The dream ended in disaster for Plánička and his men.
The 1938 World Cup took place when Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. Plánička yet again led his nation this time around. In the first round, they beat the Netherlands 3–0 with all three goals coming in extra time.
In the second round, they faced Brazil on 12th July, in what was one of the most violent matches in World Cup history, known as the "Battle of Bordeaux". The initial match ended 1-1 even after extra time, with several players being sent off and others being severely injured as well.
This led to replay 2 days later, where Czechoslovakia struggled without key players Plánička or forwards Nejedlý and Antonín Puč. This led to them losing 2-0 and crashing out of the tournament.
Plánička only conceded one goal in 240 minutes played, having the lowest goals against average with 0.38 goals per 90 minutes (which was better than Aldo Olivieri of eventual champions Italy). He was even selected to the Best XI of the tournament by a group of journalists.
That match was also the end of his chapter with the national side, thus marking the conclusion of a legendary stint.
