West Ham's Vladimir Coufal was paid in "sausages and beer" as a teenager

Vladimir Coufal knows success with West Ham this season will taste far sweeter than the bangers and beer in which he was paid by SSK Bilovec.

The Czech Republic international was devastated when he was released by boyhood club Banik Ostrava in 2010 and was forced to rebuild his dreams of a career in football with amateur side Bilovec.

But all the pain and hard work was worth it because this week he and his West Ham team-mates face Chelsea in a big Premier League clash and then Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday in the first leg of a Europa League semi-final Coufal describes as ‘historical’.

He said: “At 16, 17, I played in third-lowest division in Czech Republic. I played for sausages and beers — that’s what the guys played for, sausages and beers after the game. Banik destroyed my dream to be a professional footballer and sent me to play for this team with 40-year-old men who just liked to make a drink after work.

“It was unbelievable. Of course. I was really determined when I was released by Banik Ostrava Immediately, maybe a week after, I started to work really hard in the gym and start to go running a lot after school. I wanted to prove to them I would be able to play professional football. But it’s still inside of me, the feeling. When they gave me an offer to bring me back, I wouldn’t go. Inside I had feelings. They didn’t give me a proper chance just because I wasn’t tall enough for them, strong enough. But I was only 15-year old. Some people grow up slower but they didn’t give me a chance, so now when I’m here, it feels nice.”

Banik ought really to have known Coufal would make it to the top given his family’s sporting pedigree. His mother, Alena, represented Czechoslovakia in gymnastics at the 1988 Olympics, while