Fuente: © UEFA (English)
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UEFA UNDER 19: 'These tournaments started my career'

/noticias.info/ If proof were needed how valuable UEFA's youth tournaments are towards the development of young players, Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Čech was happy to provide it as he looks ahead to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Starting point
The Chelsea FC No1 appeared in these finals in 2000, when it was a U18 event, helping the Czech Republic finish fourth in Germany. That was the precursor to a memorable Czech triumph in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Switzerland two years later and, as Čech acknowledges, played a valuable part in setting him on the path to greatness. "These tournaments started my career really," he told uefa.com. "You have lots of scouts and people watching the tournament and they know you are under a lot of pressure. If you do well in that situation they know this is a really good sign – and actually after the U21 finals, when we beat France, I moved to Stade Rennais [FC] in France and then my career really started. You can see how important these tournaments are for the individual players."

'Only good memories'
The 26-year-old conducted the draw for this year's finals at the start of June along with a more recent graduate from the U19s to the national side, Martin Fenin, and looks back with considerable fondness on his time with the junior and U21 sides. "I have only great memories," he said. "With the U18s we lost the game for the bronze medal to Germany but we still qualified for the [FIFA] U-20 World Cup and we really enjoyed that. I have the best memories of the U21s because we won the title and that's still one of the best achievements in my career. Very few people can say they have won that title, and U21 level is a category when you have almost everyone playing at senior level and there's only good teams. It was a great honour to take part in both tournaments, and to win the U21s was something special for me."

Invaluable experience
Čech has now won 62 caps for his country, yet for all his achievements for club and country he believes it is the experience gained at the youth tournaments that gave him the confidence to push on into the senior game. "It's always important to play in these tournaments because they're a massive event," he said. "They'll be seen by the biggest clubs and chief scouts and if players play well they can really start a big career, and you also need to get the experience of playing at international level. Once you get to your country's first team you realise how important that is. I played a lot of international games at youth level and the experience really helped me when I joined the senior team. International games are always big matches, whether it's at Under-17, U19 or U21 level; you always have big crowds and the games are live on TV, and some of the guys have never played live television games. When you reach the top level they're massive games, and this kind of experience helps you to play better." notas_de_prensa_archivo