Czech Player Profile: Rudolf Skacel

While far from a certainty that Rudolf “Rudi” Skacel will be playing for the Czech side come June, here’s a guy you’ll want to keep your eyes on.

26 year old Rudi Skacel hangs his boots at Tynecastle these days, on loan to Hearts from Marseille. At this point, he’s scored15 goals in 22 games and shows no signs of cooling off. The left midfielder has not only played at Hearts and Marseille, but plied his craft at the likes of Panathinaikos and Slavia Prague.

For the Czechs, Skacel played the first half of a 4-1 home win over Armenia in the road to qualification. He’s realistic about his chances of playing on the national team this year in Germany though, as Karel Bruckner has no shortage of attacking options in midfield:

This is for the coach to say. I think I have a small chance of playing in Germany. Already there are many players in the Czech team very good at making goals. I would like to play, but I am not thinking about this now.

All I can do is play well for Hearts, and help them win the league, or maybe come second. I am very happy making goals for Hearts and making the supporters happy.

If he keeps scoring for Hearts, there’s no way he can stay under the radar. Too many attacking, scoring midfielders for Karel Bruckner to choose from? I’m sure the other teams in Group E wish they had that problem.