Jaromir Jagr, The 51-Year-Old Hockey Star Who Won’t Quit

“This city has got such a big history,” Jagr said.

Kladno’s population during that period was about 50,000, and roughly 20,000 worked at Poldi. But when the Communist government fell in 1989, the factory, unprepared for the free market, collapsed. People sought work elsewhere, especially in Prague and at the airport that sits between the two cities. The factory buildings still stand, but only a fraction are in use, by a few small companies.

Jan Ulrych, 46, a data analyst who lives in Kladno, takes his son to the occasional game. He recounted the handful of occasions that he and family members have spotted Jagr out and about in the city of 70,000. He gestured at the quiet, orderly streets, mostly empty on weekends.

“I always thought it was an ugly, industrial town with nothing going on,” he added. “But I found out that it’s not that bad. Jagr being back, maybe it helps a bit, too.”

Jagr grew up about a 10-minute drive north of the arena, not far from the old steel plant, in a section of Kladno called Hnidousy. Jagr drew a map to help a reporter locate his old house, marking a tree to one side and a small schoolhouse across the road.

His grandfather owned the farm, but most of it was confiscated by the hated, Soviet-backed Communist government that took over after World War II. Jagr’s grandfather was imprisoned for refusing to willingly hand over the land, and died in 1968, the same year Warsaw Pact tanks rumbled into the country to crush a growing independence movement. It is why Jagr still wears No. 68.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/sports/hockey/jaromir-jagr-czech-extraliga.html