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Personal
Fullname: Jacob Lenský
aka:
Born: 16 December 1988
Birthplace: Vancouver
Height: 5' 9 1/2'' (177cm)
Signed: June 2004, signed pro in December 2004 when 16.
Position: Left Midfielder
Internationals: Canada U23
International Caps: 3
International Goals: 0
Biog
Sought after schoolboy left sided midfielder who had been working the European trial circuit with Blackburn Rovers, Anderlecht, Liverpool, West Ham and both Slavia and Sparta Prague. Settled on Celtic after injury washed out a trial with Manchester United and was duly drafted into the U17 Academy side for 04/05.
A Canadian of Czech parentage, Lensky was generally played out of position but often looked several cuts above the level he was playing at. Like his contemporary Paul Cahillane (and Aiden McGeady) though, he appeared to suffer from the bizarre edicts handed down from first team level about how Celtic wingers were to behave under the Strachan administration.
Matters came to a head in August 2006, when, disgruntled at still being stuck in the Youth team, Lensky took off to Feyenoord Rotterdam who smoothed things out with Celtic, trialled him and handed him amateur terms with the promise of a full contract upon the next transfer window in January 2007. This seemed to be a wise decision as the following month he was rubbing shoulders with first teamers Pierre van Hooijdonk et al. as he played the second half of a 3-0 loss to Twente on 11/2/07.
However, with no further first team outings forthcoming Lensky took a huff of truly epic proportions and repaired to Canada in the summer of 2008, claiming to have "retired" while still a teenager. This was much to the bafflement of the Feyenoord staff, who by all accounts rated the Canadian U23 internationalist extremely highly.
After simmering down a while in his native British Columbia, Jacob emerged from his self-incurred exile to train with Vancouver Whitecaps in January 2009. He subsequently declined a contract offer and also knocked back a trial at Seattle Sounders in the hope of getting back to Europe.
That chance arrived in May 2009 when he linked up with Dutch cracks FC Utrecht and won a contract beginning in July 2009 for one year with a further two-year option.
Knocked back a call up to the Canadian national team in November 2009, opting for the Czech Republic U21s instead.
Re-born as a left-back, Lensky nailed down a regular first-team place at Utrecht and featured against Celtic in the 2010 Champion's League qualifiers.
Playing Career
League Appearances | League Goals | ||
2004/05 | Surrey United | ? | ? |
Celtic | 0 | 0 | |
2005/06 | Celtic | 0 | 0 |
2006/07 | Celtic | 0 | 0 |
Feyenoord | 1 | 0 | |
2007/08 | Feyenoord | 0 | 0 |
2008/09 | … | ||
2009/10 | FC Utrecht | 28 | 4 |
2010/11 | FC Utrecht | – | – |
Honours
Canada U20, U23 Internationalist
Pictures
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