Panenka Reveals the Secret Behind His Legendary Penalty
Legendary Czech footballer Antonín Panenka, who will soon turn 78, explained how his famous 'panenka' came to be and the psychological game he played against the goalkeeper.
Legendary Czech footballer Antonín Panenka, who will soon turn 78, explained how his famous 'panenka' came to be and the psychological game he played against the goalkeeper.
Think about how great someone must be to have a sporting move named after them. That move was later imitated by players like Lionel Messi, Francesco Totti, Neymar, Andrea Pirlo, Alexis Sanchez, and Zinedine Zidane. Everyone wanted to pull off a 'panenka' because it is a sign of coolness. Ice in the veins. And the panenka was made famous by Panenka. Antonín Panenka.
The Czech became famous on June 20, 1976, in the final of the European Championship, when during a penalty shootout against Germany, he took the decisive penalty by gently lifting the ball into the middle of the goal, while goalkeeper Sepp Meier had already dived to the side. And so, the panenka was born.
Panenka, who will soon turn 78, used his trademark dozens of times in his career, and as he tells us in an interview with Zadarski list, the secret lies in the psychological game against the goalkeeper.
"I had to think about what I could do to be the one to outsmart the goalkeeper. That's when the idea came to me. A goalkeeper who waits until the last moment has to judge whether I'll shoot left or right. I knew that as soon as he decided which way to go, he would dive in that direction. So I thought: if the goalkeeper goes one way, I'll just gently chip the ball down the middle. Then he can't come back and save it. That's how I started trying out the idea. It worked, and every time I scored, I gained more confidence. I started scoring, which was great for me," Panenka tells us.
His strike has been imitated by many, but which panenka does he consider the best executed, we asked Antonín.
"Of course, I haven't seen them all, but I've seen a great many. There are players who do it very confidently, with quality, they run up well and don't pay attention to the goalkeeper, or rather, they don't try to adapt their execution to his movement. But if everything goes as it should, I think any penalty taken this way that ends in a goal is excellent," he says.
He also revealed to us what was crucial in Czechoslovakia's triumph at Euro 1976.
"I must say that we had an extraordinary team then, especially in terms of its composition and the different types of players. We had leaders, excellent coaches. And what I must particularly emphasize is that the atmosphere in the team and among us as a collective was fantastic. I had never experienced such an atmosphere before, and I probably never experienced it again. Those were, in my opinion, the main things that led us to success. Besides that, we went to the tournament as complete underdogs. We had nothing to lose, and that's exactly what allowed us to play relaxed and believe in ourselves. In the end, we managed to do something great, and we are very happy that we delighted our fans," he concludes.
Antonín Panenka was born on December 2, 1948, in Prague. He was a midfielder and spent most of his club career at Bohemians Prague, where he played from 1967 to 1981. After that, he moved to Rapid Vienna, where he stayed until 1985, and he ended his playing career in 1993 after playing for several Austrian clubs.
He played for Czechoslovakia from 1973 to 1982, earning 59 caps and scoring 17 goals. His greatest achievement came in 1976 when he won the European Championship in Belgrade with Czechoslovakia. Four years later, he won a bronze medal at the European Championship in Italy. In 1980, he was named Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year.
