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15th Jan 2016

VIDEO: Petr Cech reveals how he almost became an ice hockey player

Is he hard enough?

Darragh Murphy

We’re not sure if scrumcaps are allowed on the ice rink.

Legendary goalkeeper Petr Cech has revealed that, as a youngster, he almost went down a different career route entirely as his first love was ice hockey.

The Arsenal stopper grew up in Plzeň where ice hockey was the most popular sport for kids and he was close to pursuing that sport.

However, the cost of buying equipment led to his father urging him to try football instead.

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“I always wanted to play ice hockey,” Cech told ArsenalTVHD. “That was always my first choice.

“But obviously, at that time, you would have to buy all the equipment so if you imagine the financial aspect of buying all the equipment and you grow up fast as a kid so then you need to keep buying it and we just couldn’t afford it.

“My father was very clever and he knew that I’d enjoy any type of sport and that I had ice hockey and football on the same level.

“So he took me to the football club when I was six-and-a-half or seven and obviously, as soon as I started playing football, I knew that I really liked it.”

Watch the full interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJeR8Kj5Qr8