TomÃ¡à ¡ ÃÂerný (born 10 April 1985) is a Czech retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. ÃÂerný has played football in the Czech Republic, Scotland, Bulgaria and Greece for Sigma Olomouc, Hamilton Academical, CSKA Sofia, Ergotelis, Hibernian, Partick Thistle and Aberdeen respectively. He has also played youth international football for the Czech Republic.
Born in ÃÂstànad Labem, ÃÂerný started his career at Sigma Olomouc in 2002, was outstanding player in the youth set-up, but he made only one senior appearance for the club, playing in a 0âÂÂ0 draw against Pà ÂÃÂbram on 12 March 2005.
He signed on loan for Scottish First Division side Hamilton Academical in August 2007. ÃÂerný helped Hamilton achieve promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2008. ÃÂerný won the SPL Player of the Month Award in January 2009. In March 2009, ÃÂerný announced his desire to stay with the Accies after his loan spell ended. On 24 April 2009, ÃÂerný signed a two-year permanent contract with Hamilton and completed a transfer from Sigma Olomouc for a fee of 200.000 Euro after attracting interest from Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers. Tomas played 155 official games for the club. Tomas was recognised as Hamilton Academical's Player of the Year for 2008âÂÂ2009. On 17 February 2012, ÃÂerný's contract was terminated by mutual consent.
On 26 June 2012, ÃÂerný joined Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia. He made his competitive debut in a 0âÂÂ0 draw against Mura 05 in the second qualifying round of Europa League on 19 July. His A Group debut came on 11 August, in the 1âÂÂ0 away loss against Litex Lovech. ÃÂerný was the undisputed number one goalkeeper for a period of more than a year and during that time racked up an impressive tally of 32 clean sheets in 57 official games. However, in late 2013, ÃÂerný lost his place in the starting line-up due to refusing to extend his contract with the club over lack of payment.
On 6 July 2014, ÃÂerný signed a two-year contract with Greek Super League club Ergotelis.
On 26 January 2015, ÃÂerný moved to Hibernian, signing a contract until the end of the 2014âÂÂ15. He left the club at the end of his contract.
ÃÂerný signed a one-year contract with Scottish Premiership club Partick Thistle in June 2015. He played regularly for Thistle in the early part of the 2015âÂÂ16 season, and manager Alan Archibald said he was the team's best player during this period. ÃÂerný suffered an ankle injury in October. On 22 January 2016, ÃÂerný signed a contract extension keeping him at Firhill Stadium until the summer of 2018.
On 8 May 2016, the day after Thistle secured their top flight status with a 2âÂÂ0 away win to Kilmarnock, ÃÂerny was voted Partick Thistle's player of the year at a ceremony in the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow.
In July 2017, he extended his contract with Thistle to the summer of 2019. After Thistle were relegated from the Premiership in May 2018, ÃÂerny exercised a clause in his contract that allowed him to become a free agent.
ÃÂerny signed a one-year contract with Aberdeen in July 2018. He extended his stay for another year in May 2019. He again signed a new one-year deal in July 2020. On 14 January 2021, ÃÂerny departed Aberdeen, also confirming his retirement from professional football. He confirmed that he would be training as a physical education teacher, looking to work in the northeast of Scotland, having settled in the area with his family.
ÃÂerný was a member of the Czech under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-21 teams, being capped 23 times U17-U19 and 5 times U21 at national level. During his international career, ÃÂerný played alongside the likes of Michal Kadlec and TomÃ¡à ¡ Sivok. ÃÂerný was part of the U-19 Czech Republic team that won Bronze at the European Championships in 2003. During this tournament, ÃÂerný kept a clean sheet against England in a 3:0 win.
ÃÂerný married his Scottish wife Laura in June 2013, after meeting her during his time playing for Hamilton Accies.
When ÃÂerný moved to Scotland in 2007, he spoke little English and after a year of learning the language, enrolled in a Psychology degree with the Open University. ÃÂerný also became involved in the Scottish reading stars initiative in 2014.