The Kladno football legend refused to have his goal leg amputated, then it was too late

Some went against the Nazi will with a gun in hand or helped in the background, others became accidental victims of the German monstrosity. May 1945 is full of tragic fates of the Czech population. However, great respect is due to all of them for taking a patriotic stance.

Among them are people of different ages, different professions. Even soccer players. Two were related to the Kladno club.

The most famous figure in Kladno’s football history is certainly the gunner František Kloz, the stadium is named after the local legend. “It’s not very common in our country, it usually bears the name of the sponsors,” points out the president of the association and sports manager of the Kladno football club, his protégé Petr Brabec, about the Spartan epet ARENA, Slavist Fortuna Arena or Pilsen’s Doosan Arena. “We are very proud of it,” the patriot’s attitude does not hide.

The stadium was built in 1914, renamed after the famous shooter in 1969. “Not many people remember it anymore,” admits Brabec. “Few young people even know about the glorious history we can boast about,” he sighs.

At the same time, in the current not very happy times, when the team at the amateur level is floundering in the division in Group B and struggling with a lack of money, such comments are very encouraging. “Last year we celebrated the 120th anniversary of our foundation,” adds the observation of one of the most famous alumni, former Czech representative Jan Suchopárek, vice-champion of Europe in 1996. in the second year of the Czechoslovak Association League 1925/1926.

František Kloz, who scored a respectable 172 goals for Kladno and clearly stuck to the local color, as he did not catch on either in Slavia (only three goals) or in Sparta (none), is certainly the greatest figure in local football history. “But unfortunately not much is known about him anymore,” Brabec repeats. “It’s sad,” adds Suchopárek with shame in his voice, because the youngsters playing for the club don’t even know him anymore…

However, Kloz, called Koniklec by his friends, also contains the legacy of a brave Czech patriot who, in the troubled days of May 1945, stood against the German occupiers in the desire for liberation, when he signed up for the resistance on Saturday, May 5, in a hastily assembled group of volunteers of all age categories.

The military headquarters in Kladno received word that partisans had discovered and occupied a German military ammunition warehouse in Hříšków in Lounsk, which was being guarded by a Wehrmacht guard unit. On Monday, May 7, the gradual transfer of ammunition and weapons began to Kladno, Slané, Rakovník and other places, where groups of volunteers were hastily established, which needed to be sufficiently armed.

František Kloz (May 19, 1905, Mlékosrby – June 19, 1945, Louny)

Kloz was also among the volunteers sent to the warehouse. Partisans joined them in the village of Mšec, and the whole group of five cars from Kladno proceeded through Srbeč to the village of Milý. Here the decision was made to attack Hříškov, which was occupied by the Germans, a few hundred meters from it near the settlement of Hvížďalka, everyone got out of their cars and marched towards the nearby goal. The group was shelled with machine gun bursts, Kloz made it to the village and was hit several times in the leg while crossing the road.

In the evening, he and the other wounded were taken to the hospital in Louna, where the diagnosis was made: crushed bone and muscle of the right thigh, in addition, significant bleeding. Forty transfusions didn’t help much, moreover, the health condition was complicated by flatulence and gangrene. A condition that required a quick solution and necessary surgery.

Kloz refused the proposed amputation, he would not put up with it. He didn’t want to lose his leg, which he scored a hat trick to the famous namesake Plániček. He did not even follow the advice of his “doctor father” MUDr. Neumann. When he finally decided and gave the nod to a radical solution, it was already too late, he died of the above-mentioned injuries on June 13. He never returned home, to the Ostrovec district of Kladno, where he lived with his family in a small villa.

The whole story was beautifully depicted by the writer Ota Pavel in the short story “František Kloze’s Last Match”.

His name stands second in order on the monument to anti-fascist fighters in the Engerth district of Kladno, he became an honorary citizen of the city. He rests in the family grave at the Kladno cemetery, in 1999 his son František joined him in the place of eternal sleep. “Representatives of the club do not place wreaths on the grave on the anniversary of a birth or death, we purposefully do not take care of the grave,” admits secretary Brabec.

The second hero of the uprising bound by the Kladno football club, Josef Kusala, was a native of Prague, but he spent his best football years at the Central Bohemian club, where he scored 17 goals in 235 matches. The uncompromising defender was also present in the memorable encounters with the Italian Juventus Turin in the Central European Cup in 1938.

After graduating from grammar school, he worked as an official of the Ministry of Railways, after his football career he was a senior adjunct at ČSD and worked at the then Masaryk railway station. When returning from a business trip from Pardubice on May 5, 1945, however, he did not arrive at his place of employment.

Josef Kusala (February 2, 1908, Prague – May 8, 1945, Prague)

The train ended in Libni, the Prague Uprising broke out and fighting also took place at the Prague railway stations. He walked along the tracks to his workplace, where he was also caught up in clashes with the German occupiers while on duty. Kusala took part in an unequal fight in the ranks of about a hundred poorly armed insurgents, against the huge superiority of German units equipped with cannons and tanks, there was not much chance to defend the object.

The Germans broke through the barricades in the surrounding streets and recaptured an important strategic point. They finally pushed the retreating rebels into the vestibule and gradually massacred them in the hall, on the platform or at the gate.

A total of 67 victims were killed, not only from the ranks of railway workers, but also passengers waiting for their connections, and the restaurant staff also suffered the same fate. Kusal’s name is carved on a marble monument to heroes in the vestibule of Masaryk station. “We are also proud of him, he belongs to Kladno football,” Suchopárek admits.