Chmel Blsany

FK Chmel Blsany are one of European football's most improbable stories, a small Czech village club from the hamlet of Blsany that somehow reached and competed in the Czech First League between 1998 and 2006. With a village population of under 400, Blsany is officially the smallest settlement ever to host a top-flight European football club. Founded in 1946 and named for hops (chmel in Czech, the crop that defined the region), the club punched so far above its weight as to seem impossible, and their distinction as Petr Cech's first professional club ensures their place in the history of Czech football. Founded in 1946, FK Chmel Blsany were based in the village of Blsany, Usti nad Labem Region, Czech Republic, and competed in the Czech First League from 1998 to 2006. They played at the Mestsky Stadion with a capacity of around 2,300. Their home colours are blue and yellow. The club disbanded in 2016 after resigning from the regional fifth tier of Czech football. The blue and yellow home kit of Chmel Blsany is the uniform that made history simply by appearing on a Czech First League pitch week after week from 1998 to 2006. Small-town and unpretentious in its design, the blue and yellow strip was worn in top-flight Czech football by a squad that defied all logic, drawing on local talent and a ferocious collective spirit that embodied everything football was supposed to be before money took over. The club also gave Petr Cech his first taste of professional football in those blue and yellow shirts, a connection that links even the simplest Chmel Blsany kit to the very top of the European game.