Tomáš Souček


Tomáš Souček is a defensive midfielder who plays for West Ham United in the Premier League, and for the Czech Republic national football team.

Club career

Slavia Prague

Souček made his league debut on 8 March 2015 in Viktoria Žižkov's 1–2 Czech National Football League home loss against FC Fastav Zlín. He scored his first league goal on 16 August 2015 in Slavia Prague's 4–0 home win against FC Vysočina Jihlava.
Souček broke into the Slavia Prague first team in 2015 and played 29 out of 30 league matches in the 2015–16 Czech First League for them. However, in the 2016–17 season, his position in the first team was lost due to the arrival of Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui and Souček played only 93 minutes in three months between September and December 2016. He went on loan to Slovan Liberec during the winter transfer window.
On 9 May 2018, he played as Slavia Prague won the 2017–18 Czech Cup final against Jablonec.
In the 2018–19 season, he won the domestic double with Slavia Prague and was awarded the Czech First League Player of the Year award. On 17 June 2019, Souček extended his contract with Slavia Prague until 2024.

West Ham United (loan)

On 29 January 2020, Souček joined Premier League side West Ham on an initial loan deal until the end of the 2019–20 season, with an option to make the transfer permanent in the summer. On 1 July, he scored his first goal for West Ham in a 3–2 win against Chelsea, having had a goal disallowed earlier in the same half by VAR. In West Ham's following league match, he scored again to give his team a 2–1 lead against Newcastle United, in an eventual 2–2 away draw.

West Ham United

announced the permanent signing of Souček on 24 July 2020 on a four-year contract, for a fee of around €21m/£19m.

International career

After representing the Czech Republic in several youth categories, he made his debut for the senior side on 15 November 2016 in a friendly match against Denmark. He made his competitive debut on 10 June 2017 in Czech Republic's 1–1 away draw against Norway in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. He appeared in all three matches of the Czech Republic Under-21 team on the 2017 UEFA Under-21 Championship.

Style of play

Souček has built a reputation as an energetic box-to-box midfielder with both defensive and attacking qualities. He is also known for his strong physical presence thanks to his 1.92m frame.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

NoDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.8 November 2017Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–02–1Friendly
2.10 September 2018Rostov Arena, Rostov-on-Don, Russia1–31–5Friendly
3.10 September 2019Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro1–03–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours

Club

Slavia Prague