KLADNO, Czech Republic — The boisterous followers within the standing part at CEZ Stadion unfurled an enormous banner final week. It bore the unmistakable, bearded likeness of Rytiri Kladno’s proprietor, as followers throughout the world serenaded him and offered him with a birthday cake after the sport.
Homeowners of sports activities groups not often get pleasure from such adoration, however this one is Jaromir Jagr, who can also be certainly one of Kladno’s greatest gamers: Not simply in its historical past, however now, in 2023, at age 51.
“He isn’t the participant he as soon as was, in fact, however he’s nonetheless good,” stated Vojtech Absolin, who conducts the fan refrain, “and he means every part to the membership.”
Nonetheless good, Jagr was as soon as really nice, starring within the N.H.L. over 27 seasons on 9 groups, profitable two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins, amassing a Hart Trophy because the league’s most useful participant within the 1998-99 season and tallying 1,921 factors, second solely to Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857.
Among the many many accomplishments reached by older athletes just lately — from Tom Brady’s retirement at 45, Serena Williams’s at 40 and LeBron James’s reaching the N.B.A.s profession scoring summit at 38 — Jagr stands out, not as a result of he’s enjoying in his thirty fifth consecutive season {of professional} hockey, however as a result of he does so for a trigger.
He spent his 51st birthday in February distributing crisp passes, heading off opponents along with his cumbersome bottom, handing out the occasional crosscheck and pushing Kladno to a vital win late within the season.
However Jagr, whose teammates are principally of their 20s, is greater than an growing older athlete stubbornly clinging to a fading profession. He’s a savior of kinds, a nationwide treasure from modest Kladno who bears the very existence of his struggling membership, and by extension this postindustrial city, atop his sturdy shoulders, a lot as his father did earlier than him.
“I’d by no means have been a hockey participant if it was not for this city and this membership,” Jagr stated final week, an hour after a troublesome time beyond regulation loss. “I’d be a very completely different particular person. This membership and this metropolis made my life. It’s my accountability to present it again.”
Jagr’s play helps the group stave off the specter of relegation from the Czech Republic’s high hockey league and chapter; retains badly wanted cash flowing from sponsors, a lot of whom favor to be related along with his title and likeness, moderately than the last-place membership. Principally, Jagr nonetheless performs as a result of he adores it, as a result of he can, and since he likes to eat.
Jagr’s enjoying weight within the N.H.L. was roughly 240 kilos. Today he hovers between 265 to 270 kilos, he stated, however like retirement, weight-reduction plan shouldn’t be in his instant future.
“To start with, it’s enjoyable,” he stated whereas scarfing down a ham sandwich within the modest V.I.P. lounge of the newly renovated, city-owned stadium in Kladno. “Second, in case you cease, you’re going to get fats and unhealthy and get surgical procedures on again, knees and hips. I’d crash down. I see it on everyone else. I’m not doing that. I need to have a contented life, so I’m going to work laborious till I die, as a result of it’s the one method.”
Exhausting work has lengthy outlined Jagr, starting when he was a baby on his household’s farm. His hockey exercises are legendary, and he enhances them now by training with a 25-pound stick, ankle weights and a weighted vest; taking pictures six-inch go-kart tires throughout the ice; and stickhandling in a pool to extend resistance.
“He’s a unique form of animal,” stated Landon Bow, Kladno’s goalie, who’s from St. Albert, Alberta. “He’s a bit of loopy like that.”
In Bow’s two years in Kladno he has seen Jagr’s impression.
“With out him, I don’t know if there’s a group right here,” Bow stated. “He’s pouring in hours of labor to verify every part is up and operating. We don’t have the most important price range, however he’s ensuring we now have sponsors and we now have a group. It’s his child, and it’s superb to see how a lot folks love him.”
The Pittsburgh of the Czech Republic
With its quaint, medieval metropolis heart, fashionable residential flats and outer farmland, Kladno was as soon as a thriving industrial (and hockey) heart of Europe. Recognized for its mines and the nice Poldi metal works, which Karl Wittgenstein (father of the thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein), opened in 1889, it sits lower than 20 miles northwest of outdated Prague.
Underneath the postwar communist regime, the metal manufacturing facility sponsored the membership and Poldi Kladno loved a small dynasty, profitable 5 nationwide championships between 1975 and 1980, behind Milan Novy, maybe the second-best participant in Czech hockey historical past.
“This metropolis has bought such a giant historical past,” Jagr stated.
Kladno’s inhabitants throughout that interval was about 50,000 and roughly 20,000 labored at Poldi. However when the communist authorities fell in 1989, the manufacturing facility, unprepared for the free market, collapsed. Folks sought work elsewhere, particularly in Prague and on the airport that sits between the 2 cities. The manufacturing facility buildings nonetheless stand, however solely a fraction are in use, by a couple of small firms.
Jan Ulrych, 46, a knowledge analyst who lives in Kladno, takes his son to the occasional recreation. He recounted the handful of events that he and members of the family have noticed Jagr out and about within the metropolis of 70,000. He gestured on the quiet, orderly streets, principally empty on weekends.
“I at all times thought it was an unpleasant, industrial city with nothing happening,” he added. “However I discovered that it’s not that dangerous. Jagr being again, perhaps it helps a bit, too.”
Jagr grew up a few 10-minute drive north of the world, not removed from the outdated metal plant, in a piece of Kladno known as Hnidousy. Jagr drew a map to assist a reporter find his outdated home, marking a tree to at least one facet and a small schoolhouse throughout the street.
His grandfather owned the farm, however most of it was confiscated by the hated, Soviet-backed communist authorities that took over after World Struggle II. Jagr’s grandfather was imprisoned for refusing to willingly hand over the land, and died in 1968, the identical yr Warsaw Pact tanks rumbled into the nation to crush a rising independence motion. It’s why Jagr nonetheless wears No. 68.
Jagr’s father additionally grew up on the farm, and labored on it virtually every single day, till most cancers compelled him to remain dwelling. He died in November at 82, and Jagr describes his father because the artist who painted him into the person he’s now.
Miroslav Hlavacek is the co-owner of a small firm that installs street indicators and is headquartered in a makeshift provide and tools depot subsequent to Jagr’s outdated home. A Rytiri Kladno fan, he knew Jagr’s father casually, sufficient to say hey when he handed by.
“All the time on a tractor,” he stated, utilizing a translating app on his cellphone.
Jagr’s father additionally owned a profitable constructing firm, however farming invigorated him. Whereas many stated he was allocating valuable time tending to cows, as an alternative of his extra profitable constructing firm, he did what he beloved. Jagr equally seeks refuge from operating each the constructing firm he inherited from his dad and the hockey membership in his lifelong ardour — enjoying the sport.
“Taking part in is sort of a freedom for me and it was the identical for my dad,” he stated. “The farm was freedom for him as a result of he knew it. He didn’t have to consider it. I don’t need to suppose learn how to play, learn how to observe. I’ve achieved it again and again since I used to be 4. I’m form of operating away from the opposite stuff, for this.”
Jagr marveled that his dad and mom by no means took a trip, and that ethos was imprinted on him. As a boy, Jaromir labored on the farm every single day, principally amassing big bales of grass from a neighboring area to feed the cows.
“That’s the reason I used to be so sturdy,” he stated. “It was like going to the health club every single day for 5 hours. Even once I was 18, I felt like I used to be going to be the strongest within the N.H.L., as a result of it was such laborious work. We needed to do it every single day, doesn’t matter if it rains. Summer time was the toughest, as a result of you must get the meals for the winter, too. From the morning, you simply work till evening.”
Clearly, he additionally discovered time to skate, and his first two skilled seasons had been spent with Kladno when he was 16 and 17. From there, taken fifth total within the 1990 N.H.L. draft, he went straight to the Penguins. Jagr burst into North American arenas along with his signature mullet, magnetic smile and beguiling ability, serving to the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup alongside Mario Lemieux, then serving to them win a second the next season.
Again in Kladno, issues weren’t as flashy. With out the help of the Poldi manufacturing facility to bolster payroll, the hockey membership confronted chapter. The town begged Jagr’s father to purchase the group lest it transfer or dissolve; so he did. However Kladno nonetheless struggled over the following decade to compete with powerhouse groups in Prague and Brno, and cash was a relentless concern.
“He needed to promote it, however that may imply it will transfer, and the entire metropolis would go loopy,” Jagr stated. “So, the mayor requested if I’d help it. I couldn’t say no.”
This was in 2011. Jagr was ending a three-year stint with Avangard Omsk in Russia, having left the N.H.L. after he couldn’t get a contract to his liking. He had solely six weeks to safe sponsorships and public funding for his father’s hockey membership earlier than flying to the U.S. to make his N.H.L. return with the Philadelphia Flyers, however he pulled it off. Following his remaining N.H.L. recreation, with the Calgary Flames on New 12 months’s Eve in 2017, Jagr returned dwelling to present his undivided consideration to Kladno.
Combating to Keep within the League
Jagr, who has performed every season for Kladno since 2018, selected the brand new title, Rytiri, that means knight, and the brand new emblem of a bearded nobleman with a cross on his helmet, to honor his Orthodox religion.
The school-suitable enviornment is tucked between a neighborhood soccer stadium and a tiny wooden. Some followers stroll to video games alongside close by practice tracks, bundled in scarfs bearing photos of Jagr and sporting group jerseys, most with Jagr’s No. 68.
Tasty, purple klobasy sizzle on a grill subsequent to the primary entrance, and are offered with a splotch of brown mustard on a plate and a slice of rye bread.
Final week began nicely for the Knights, with two wins that pulled them out of final place within the 14-team Czech Extraliga. Towards Mlada Boleslav, on Jagr’s birthday, the 4,000-seat enviornment, whereas not offered out, nonetheless pulsated, particularly within the standing terrace behind one of many objectives, the place the house followers sing and cheer in unison all through video games.
Ticket gross sales account for under 15 p.c of income, Jagr stated, and the remaining is secured by way of sponsorships and municipal help. However the followers are passionate. Tomas Plekanec, who performed 15 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, was certainly one of them. Plekanec, who at 39 is the group’s second oldest participant, grew up right here and performed his first skilled seasons for Kladno. He now facilities the primary line, with Jagr on his proper wing, and sporting the captain’s “C” on his shirt.
“It’s only a letter,” Plekanec stated after a current observe. “He’s the proprietor. He’s the go-to man for this group, and this city.”
The Knights are in final place, trailing by some extent with two video games left. In the event that they end on the backside, they need to win a seven-game playoff towards the second-division champion, or be relegated to the decrease league, the place it’s that a lot more durable to draw sponsors.
To fulfill the problem, Jagr practices every single day, even when the group doesn’t. On the similar time, he’s in conferences, fretting over money circulation, and directing the event of 400 youth gamers underneath the membership’s umbrella.
“I can see all of it worries him,” stated Zdenek Janda, a reporter for Denik Sport and Isport, who has lined Jagr for 20 years. “Taking part in is his launch, and he’s nonetheless good, even at 51. There have been video games this yr when he was one of the best participant on the ice. I believe he may play till he’s 65.”
Earlier this month, Jagr scored his fourth objective in 22 video games. It was his 1,one centesimal skilled objective, together with worldwide play, giving him two greater than Wayne Gretzky for {most professional} objectives.
Sponsors love the worldwide consideration the event drew. But when Jagr stopped enjoying, would they go away?
“Yeah, most of them,” he stated with a grim chuckle.
With no main firms in Kladno, Jagr is arguably the town’s best useful resource. David Spiller, a neighborhood taxi driver, stated Jagr is the Czech Republic’s most well-known citizen worldwide. Spiller, 51, known as him, “the savior of Kladno and the game we love,” and estimated that Jagr is even better-known globally than Vaclav Havel, the author, statesman and president from 1989 to 2003.
“There are folks on this nation who will inform you Jagr is God,” Spiller stated. “After all, Havel was essential. However that was for a short while. Jagr remains to be enjoying.”