Matěj Valenta

A league debut arrived in 2018, and by the end of that season he already had a Czech title and a Czech Cup winner's medal to his name, though it came from a single league appearance.

Ústí nad Labem, Dynamo České Budějovice, Slovan Liberec and Slovácko each had him for a spell, and it was at Dynamo, on a permanent move in 2020, that he first became a fixture, making over 40 appearances. Slavia brought him back in 2022 using a buy-back option, but the two loan spells that followed suggest the club still saw him as a player to develop elsewhere before deciding his future.

That future turned out to be Plzeň. His move there in January 2024 was tied into a broader deal between the two clubs, with Jindřich Staněk going the other way to Slavia as part of the same exchange. Since then Valenta has settled into Plzeň's league side, and the 2025/26 season has brought by far his heaviest workload there, with regular starts in the Chance Liga alongside his first taste of European football, appearing in both the Europa League and the Champions League. In April 2026 he committed his future to the club with a contract extension running to 2029.

At international level, Valenta has represented the Czech Republic at under-18, under-19 and under-21 level, playing at the 2023 European Under-21 Championship finals.