An entire constellation of stars descended upon the Generali Arena in Prague on Sunday as Tomas Rosicky bade his farewell to football with a testimonial.
For the occasion, Rosicky assembled his own squad of Czech Legends featuring Petr Cech, Milan Baros, Karel Poborsky, Jiri Novotny, Jaroslav Plasil and Jan Koller, who were pitted against a ‘Rest of the World XI’ made up of the 37-year-old midfielder’s former teammates – Robin Van Persie, Jens Lehmann, Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Yossi Benayoun, Alex Hleb, Matthieu Flamini and Kieran Gibbs, etc, etc.
The Czech chaps eventually emerged victorious with a 5-2 win on home soil, with Rosicky’s five-year-old son Tomas Jnr capping the comprehensive scoreline with the final goal of the evening.
And a belter it was too, though we can’t help but feel the defence went a little easy on him!
Here’s the full match highlights, including a couple of lovely goals from Koller and Lehmann getting booed out of the stadium for daring to save a Rosicky penalty…
Looks like jolly good fun was had by all – apart from Lehman, who is humanly incapable of dialling it down.
Goodbye to the Little Mozart. A fitting end to a splendid, if injury-hampered career.