Another semi-title for Pilsen. Goalkeeper Staněk leads the Golden Ball poll for the Czech footballer of the season after the autumn

Viktoria, as the defending champion, leads the league table after the fall. And another semi-title is added by its goalkeeper. Since the 2015/16 season, Jindřich Staněk is only the second player from the Czech league to lead the Golden Ball poll after the autumn part.

“I’m surprised, I didn’t expect it (smile). But I’m happy about it, I’m happy about it. We’ve had a good autumn, the team did well, so that’s reflected in that,” responds the leader of the poll.

“It’s hard to say so quickly who I would choose. But I would probably vote for Lukáš Kalvach from our team, or Tonda Barák from the national team,” he muses.

Stanek has had a year of his life behind him. In the spring of last year, he helped Pilsen to an unexpected league title and continued his excellent performances in the fall. The goalkeeper of the Czech national team was significantly involved in Viktoria’s progress from qualification to the Champions League group and he was also successful in the domestic competition. In the autumn part of the league season, he was the best goalkeeper with seven zeros and helped the West Bohemians to the continuous lead in the table.

So far, Staňk’s best placing in the Golden Ball was the 11th place from last season. Plzeňská opora has a 35-point lead over Barák, who moved from Verona to Fiorentina at the beginning of the autumn part of the Italian league. The winner of the poll from the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, midfielder Souček from West Ham, is another 31 points behind.

Defending champion Schick struggled with an injury during the autumn part, and this time after the first half of the voting, he is only in fourth place. The 26-year-old Leverkusen striker is almost 200 points behind leader Staňek.

38 out of 45 voting journalists included Stanek on their ticket for the autumn part, only seven journalists omitted it. In 22 cases, the goalkeeper from Pilsen came in first place, three times he was second and three times third. 41 journalists voted equally for Barák and Souček, but significantly fewer journalists ranked them first. Barák won only nine times and Souček four times, just like Schick. 40 players scored at least one point.

In total, there are three players from the domestic competition in the elite eleven, in addition to the leader Staňek, his clubmate from Pilsen, offensive midfielder Adam Vlkanova and Brno striker Jakub Řezníček, with 11 goals so far the best scorer of the league season.

The highest-ranked slavist, the offensive all-rounder Ondřej Linger, is up to 12th place. On one ballot, his teammate from Eden, the all-rounder Tomáš Holeš, who has not played since mid-September due to injury, also got first place. He is currently in 24th place in the ranking.

Compared to last year, there were six changes in the elite eleven in the fall. The winner of the poll for the 2018/19 season, goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík, midfielders Holeš, Jakub Pešek, Michal Sadílek and Jakub Jankto, and forward Jan Kuchta did not make it to the best this time. Instead of them, goalkeepers Staněk and Jiří Pavlenka, defender Jakub Brabec, midfielder Vlkanova, winger Václav Černý and forward Řezníček figure in the first eleven.

Ballon d’Or voting takes place in two rounds. The overall winner will be announced after the season, when votes for the spring part will be added to the fall results. The record holder of the poll is former goalkeeper Petr Čech with 12 championships.