12 November 1939 - A Fitting Mark For The Occasion

On 12 November 1939, forward Josef Bican commemorated his appearance for a third national team by scoring a hat-trick.

Bican, who was born in Vienna in 1913, made his first national team appearance for Austria in 1933. He went on to play for them a total of nineteen times--and scoring a total of nineteen goals--through 1936. The following year, he left Austria to play for Slavia Prague where he spent the majority of his career, scoring 395 goals in 217 matches between 1937 and 1948.

After moving to Prague, he switched his national team allegiance to Czechoslovakia. But after only three games (and eight goals), Czechoslovakia fell to the Nazis, who disbanded the team. They attempted to persuade Bican to turn out for Germany, but he declined, choosing instead to play for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which, while Nazi-controlled, remained ethnically Czech.

In his lone appearance for the Protectorate, Bican provided three goals in what turned out to be a 4-4 draw with Germany.

He rejoined the Czechoslovakian national team when they resumed play in 1946, making another eleven appearances for them until retiring from international football in 1949.