David Lafata (born 18 September 1981) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was the Czech First League's top scorer in six seasons and with 198 league goals, he is by far the top scorer of the Czech First League of all time. He also scored nine goals for the Czech Republic national team.

Club career

From 1992 until 2005, Lafata played for Czech team SK České Budějovice, with a brief spell at FC Vysočina Jihlava in 2002. The striker then moved to Greek club Skoda Xanthi in July 2005, but returned to the Czech Liga in January 2006. After one year at Jablonec, Lafata was transferred to FK Austria Vienna in January 2007 from where he came back to Jablonec in the spring of 2008. For Austria, he scored a goal in a domestic cup final.

In the 2010–11 season, Lafata was top scorer of the Czech First League with 19 goals.

He continued his good run of form into the 2011–12 season, scoring eleven goals in the first seven games, at the end of the autumn half, he scored eighteen goals in sixteen appearances. In April 2012, Lafata broke the Czech First League season scoring record, notching his 23rd goal of the season. He finished season with 25 goals, being top scorer and setting a new record.

In the 2012–13 season, Lafata scored 13 goals in the first 16 games, being top scorer of the league before signing for AC Sparta Prague in the winter break. In February 2013, he scored a goal in the Europa League round of 32, in a 2–1 aggregate loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. In March 2014 Lafata scored his 134th goal in the Czech First League, surpassing Horst Siegl as its top all-time scorer.

At the start of the 2014–15 season, Lafata scored five goals in a 7–0 Champions League qualifying round win over Levadia Tallinn in the home leg in Prague. Continuing his fine form in the Champions League qualifying round, Lafata scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 comeback victory over Malmö FF at home in Prague. In autumn 2015, Lafata was denied at hat-trick (by the Croatian referee) in Europa League match in Greece against Asteras Tripolis. He scored goal in both away and home match against Schalke 04, as Sparta progressed to the knockout stages.

In May 2016, Lafata became the first player to score five goals in a Czech First League match, netting all of the goals in a 5–0 win against Jihlava. On 30 July 2017, he scored his 200th league goal in a 1–1 draw against city rival Bohemians 1905.

International career

He scored two goals on his debut for the Czech national team in a 2–1 win against Wales on 2 September 2006. He came on as a substitute after 75 mins and scored within a minute of coming on, the second coming in the 89th minute.

Career statistics

Club

Source: League matches European club matches League matches for Austria

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

International goals

1. Scores and results list Czech Republic's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lafata goal.

List of international goals scored by David Lafata

Honours

Austria Wien

• Austrian Cup: 2006–07

Sparta Prague

• Czech First League: 2013–14

• Czech Cup: 2013–14

• Czech Supercup: 2014

Individual

• Czech Footballer of the Year: 2014

• Czech First League top scorer: 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17

Records

• Czech First League all-time top goalscorer

• Czech First League most goals in the row: 9 matches / 9 goals

• Most goals in a single Czech First League game: 5 goals

• FK Jablonec all-time top goalscorer in Czech First League: 88 goals

• SK Dynamo České Budějovice all-time third goalscorer in Czech First League: 27 goals

• Most goals in a single UEFA Champions League qualifying phase: 8 goals (2014–15) (shared with Cléo)

• Most goals in a single UEFA Champions League game: 5 goals (shared with Lionel Messi, Luiz Adriano and Mikhail Mikholap)

References

External links