Former Tiger jets off to Euro 2024

A former Hyde United footballer is heading to Euro 2024 as his country’s first choice goalkeeper. 

Czech international Jindrich Stanek, 28, made five loan appearances for the Tigers in September 2015, during Gary Lowe’s ill-fated second spell in charge. 

The then 19-year-old Everton youth team player’s debut came in a 3-0 defeat at Blyth Spartans, followed by a 2-0 reversal at Ewen Fields against Stourbridge. 

Hyde won each of his remaining three matches, with Stanek keeping two clean sheets. 

However, the side only won four more Northern Premier League games during the rest of the season, condemning them to a third straight relegation. 

“We were on a good run at the time,” says Hyde’s General Manager, Pete Ainger. “We really rated Jindrich and were hugely disappointed when Everton recalled him.” 

“That’s the nature of having goalkeepers on loan in non-league, though. You can probably cover it when an outfielder goes back to their parent club, but a goalie is much tougher to replace. 

“It was the sheer size of him that stood out. Most ‘keepers are big, but the size of him was something else, a real physical presence. He was Schmeichel-esque, and it’s no surprise at all that he’s done well for himself.” 

Stanek left Everton in 2016 after failing to break into the first team, moving back to Czechia to spend four seasons with Ceske Budejovice, where he won promotion to the Czech top flight in 2019. 

After representing his country at every youth level from Under-16 to Under-21, he made his senior international debut in 2021, coming off the bench in a 3-0 World Cup Qualifying defeat to Belgium. 

He spent a further three seasons at Viktoria Plzen, winning the Czech First League’s Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2022, before signing a three-year deal with Slavia Prague earlier this year. 

Hyde have a reputation for nurturing talented young goalkeepers.  

Huddersfield Town’s Gio Bellagambi made his senior international debut for Uganda while on loan at the club in 2022, while Burnley stopper Lawrence Vigouroux – who has twice been called up to Chile’s senior squad – played for the Tigers in the 2013/14 season. 

Christopher Dilo, who Blackburn Rovers loaned to Hyde in 2012, has since made four appearances for Guadeloupe.  

Meanwhile, Marseille and Senegal forward, Iliman Ndiaye, lit up Ewen Fields during a Covid-interrupted loan spell in 2020.