The tireless ice hockey legend: 51-year-old Jaromir Jagr before his 36th professional season

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Some people are already thinking about retirement at the age of 51, even though that is still far away. Things are different with ice hockey star Jaromir Jagr. Many things are different there. The never tired man cannot accept the end of his work, even at the age of 51 he still plays in the highest Czech league: he is a player and club owner at Kladno.

Ice hockey is a holiday for him

His hair is still shoulder length. The beard is still there, just gray now. Otherwise? Is Jagr still hungry? Hungry for ice hockey, the sport he shaped for so long and still practices in the Czech Republic. “For me, ice hockey is like going on vacation,” Jagr once told “The Athletic.”

The current season in the Czech league will be his 36th as a professional – crazy! The fact that Jagr is still active even at an older age is not only for sporting reasons. With his name it is easier to attract sponsors. For a small club like Kladno, such income is extremely important.

It tickles

Yet Jagr seems to be particularly looking forward to the sporting task. You could even say: still as strong as in the early days. «I just saw that I played for Kladno for the first time 35 years ago. The anticipation and nervousness before the start… it’s still the same as then,” Jagr wrote on Instagram.

After starting as a professional with his hometown club in the Czech Republic in 1988, Jagr moved to the NHL for Pittsburgh in 1990 and became a superstar. The two-time Stanley Cup winner’s passion for the sport has propelled him to second place on the NHL’s all-time leading scorer list, just behind Wayne Gretzky: 1,733 games, 1,921 points.

Kladno needs optimism

Jagr, who has been back at Kladno since 2018, wants to get the club into shape not only as a player, but also as a club owner. Before the start of the new season, he changed the warm-up program and the music in Kladno’s home stadium. “A song by Olga Lounova, an eternal optimist,” he writes.

Jagr and Co need optimism: after being promoted to the Extraliga in 2021, the six-time Czechoslovakian champion (between 1959 and 1980) was only able to avoid relegation from the Premier League last season.

Jagr played in 26 games there, which means he was on the ice in half of all games in Kladno. Load control, as it is called in professional jargon. Jagr has yet to intervene this season, which is only two games old. For a 51-year-old ice hockey player, there should be some breaks.

Source : Blick