Vlasta Burian in goal

You are holding a book that sheds light on a period of the King of Comedians' life that is not so well known to the public. Even football experts do not seriously describe Vlasta Burian's football career in their specialist publications. And yet, as Sparta's sports secretary Ferdinand Scheinost once wrote: Vlasta Burian is one of the famous figures of our football!

Everyone surely knows the King of Comedians – Vlasta Burian, whose films brighten up our Christmas and New Year's holidays. However, few people know that he was also an all-round sportsman who excelled in tennis, cycling, motoring, horse riding and other sports. But most of all he loved football and was an excellent goalkeeper for the first-division team AC Sparta Prague. This period is also the most well-documented in many photographs and written records, even though Sparta's documents up to 1934 were destroyed in a fire at the Sparta stand in Letná.

Vlasta Burian was a member of Sparta from 1914 to 1922, when he had to quit due to his acting career, which took precedence over sport.

All of this, covering both his football and refereeing activities, is described in this publication by collector and publicist Ivan Vápenka, who has also been a great Sparta fan, body and soul, since childhood. In the book, he details Burian's entire football career, which was not only at Sparta but also at Slavia, where he had his 'Burian's Eleven'. But that wasn't his only team, he also had... But you can read about that in this unique publication by the sports-passionate Sparta fan Ivan Vápenka. We hope you enjoy it and discover many episodes from the life of our King of Comedians, and as the then sports secretary of Sparta, Ferdinand Scheinost, wrote: "Vlasta Burian is one of the famous figures of our football, and even though he was a Slavia player for two years, in his heart he remained a lifelong Sparta fan!"

author Ivan Vápenka (*1943)

A collector and publicist whose life motto was: "Not only to have, but also to know, and to pass it all on to others", he has explored several collecting fields since his youth. He is the co-founder (1968) of the Paper Banknote Collectors' Club of the Czechoslovak Numismatic Society, where he edited the newsletter Bankovka. As a co-author, he contributed to the first-ever catalogue (1972) "Czechoslovak Banknotes 1918–1970" and his magnum opus was the monograph "Creators of Czechoslovak Banknotes", which profiled more than 74 authors of coins and paper money.

In 1974 he founded the Autograph Collectors' Club, where he edited the club newsletter Autogram. This club is widespread throughout the country and still exists today.

After meeting the writer Jaroslav Foglar (1967), he became his "second father" and shared many personal and close encounters with him, mainly accompanying him to his talks. He was the first of his admirers to compile overviews of his works, especially his comic strips. He adapted his most significant play, Po stopách Alvareze (1988), and co-created the publication Rychlé šípy slaví narozeniny 1938–1988. He also published a catalogue for Foglar collectors, Foglarovské odznaky (1994). He was the first to discover many Foglar-related curiosities, which were then shamelessly claimed by other "Foglarologists".

He is also a sports enthusiast and a lifelong Sparta fan, and so he also collects sports philately, having been a member of the OLYMPSPORT association of the SČF. He edited the Olympsport newsletter and managed to compile comprehensive catalogues of philatelic materials on the Peace Race cycling event both at home and abroad (1997 and 1998), as well as a catalogue Sparta – Slavia in Philately (2001). The pinnacle was the catalogue of World Football Badges (1974). He participated in numerous international exhibitions with his exhibits, where he received many high awards.

After several collecting transformations, he has now settled on Scout philately. He felt like a Scout from a young age, as his older brother was one. However, he couldn't be a Scout himself because he spent his childhood in the 1950s. All the more so, he now devotes himself to Scout philately, where he has created two fundamental catalogues