Tomas Repka once gave away a penalty on purpose when playing for Ceske Budejovice in order to spite potential West Ham investor and current Sparta Prague co-owner Daniel Kretinsky.
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The Czech Republic defender spent four-and-a-half years with West Ham before joining Sparta Prague on a free transfer in January 2006.
Repka built up somewhat of a cult following at Upton Park and had a reputation of being a real hard man.
The now 47-year-old was a real loose cannon and would often fly into challenges without any thought of potential consequences.
Repka got sent off twice in his first three games for West Ham and received 10 bookings during his first season in East London.
He wasn’t actually a great player but the Hammers faithful loved him nonetheless.
The tenacious defender was clearly a bit of a maverick.
And he recently made a very honest admission that proves exactly that.
West Ham cult hero Tomas Repka once gave away a penalty to spite Daniel Kretinsky
Whilst playing for minnows Ceske Budejovice, the Czech ace deliberately gave away a penalty against Liberec in order to stop Sparta Prague from winning the league title.
The former Hammer was aggrieved at the manner in which Kretinsky handled his exit from Sparta Prague.
Repka wrote in his autobiography:
“At that precise moment I was not thinking straight. I hurt the team as a whole. But I was fuelled by human vanity, and I wanted to settle a score with Mr. Kretinsky. He didn’t behave fairly to me when I was leaving Sparta, so I promised him I’d get him back. Hopefully I succeeded. Nobody knew about it so I’m voluntarily admitting to it now.”
That really is a rather stark admission.
And the fact that a former West Ham player did that to someone who could soon own the club, or at least be a big investor, really is quite the coincidence.
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If Kretinsky does end up buying West Ham, you can bet your life that Repka will be one former player who most definitely won’t be getting an invite to the London Stadium!
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