Pavel Steiner’s football career began in his hometown of Blížejov, a village ten kilometres from Domažlice. Although he played as a forward in Blížejov and later in Milavče, his next engagement in Horšovský Týn at the age of 15 put him in the net for the first time - and that’s where he stayed. Two years later, his path led to the divisional team of Přeštice, and simultaneously to Cheb, where he started working as a train conductor after graduating from technical college in Pilsen. In order to avoid commuting between Blížejov, Přeštice and Cheb, the representatives of the Přeštice club arranged for his transfer to Zdice, so that all of his centres of activity lay along one route.

After barely a year spent as a conductor in Zdice and football player in Přeštice, there came a crucial turning point in his sports career - the Přeštice football team beat Viktoria Žižkov in the Czechoslovak Championship, followed by a match on home turf against the famous Dukla Praha team. It was a close win for Dukla, but legendary Dukla coach Ivo Viktor had been watching the young goalie during both games, and after the match he invited him to Prague for trials. After a week in Prague, the then still military team informed him that he was in.

However, a curious obstacle arose - when Pavel Steiner was supposed to enlist as a soldier for basic military service, it turned out that as a train conductor, he had a “blue book” (meaning he was exempted). As one of the few citizens of the then-socialist republic, he requested its cancellation at the Domažlice army administration, to the considerable surprise of all those around. “At the time, my dad teased me that if it didn’t work out with Dukla, the soldiers would send me somewhere awful like Trebišov in revenge,” Pavel Steiner laughs now, remembering the incident. In the end, things did work out with Dukla. Paradoxically, however, he got his blue book back 13 months later, because Dukla wanted to sign him under a professional contract, which would not be possible if he were serving in the military. Thus, thanks to his connections at Dukla, he first headed to the military hospital, and then back to the army administration, where he was issued his second certificate of exemption from military service.

While at Dukla, the Velvet Revolution came and opened up entirely new sporting opportunities. On 4 January 1990, Dukla travelled to participate in an indoor tournament in Bayreuth, West Germany. Pavel Steiner collected 450 marks for the win, an incredible sum at the time. Three days later, the team flew to Istanbul, where Dukla faced Ajax Amsterdam, among other teams. “It was there that I first met Edwin van der Sar,” Pavel Steiner recalls. Istanbul was also where all his West German marks were spent on gifts for his family and himself.

Pavel Steiner kept goal for Dukla until 1992, when he departed for Germany at the age of 23. He spent half a year with SVV Jahn Regensburg, followed by a contract with SpVgg Unterhaching, and finally with the Stuttgarter Kickers. In Stuttgart, however, the success went to his head and instead of transferring to VfB Stuttgart, which had shown an interest in him, he got a tough lesson in life and returned home to Czechia. “At the time, I couldn’t handle the success mentally. I felt like the world champion, and instead of being humble, I started having nonsensical ideas.” The transfer didn’t work out and the Kickers bid him farewell. He returned home and started again.

Yet, a year later, he returned to Germany after all. After brief engagements with FC Petržalka 1898 in Slovakia and AO Kavala in Greece, he joined VfB Oldenburg. Another interesting offer came from Canton, China, where he spent two seasons. After returning from China, he played for the Ukrainian FK Kryvbas Kyrvyj Rih and Israeli Maccabi Kafr Kanna FC clubs. “Bombs were exploding in Israel at the time. After the matches, my teammates and I would go to Haifa to swim in the sea. And once, a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Haifa just thirty minutes after we’d left. There were 14 victims. It was a turning point. My mum was crying on the phone that she couldn’t stand it any longer, so I agreed with the team to terminate my contract and flew home.”

In Prague, he signed his last professional contract, joining his beloved FC Bohemians Praha team, coaxed by coaches Zdeněk Hruška, Karel Dobiáš and Antonín Panenka. But his career was slowly drawing to a close, and after tearing the ligaments in his knee for the third time at age 35 during winter training camp, it definitively ended. However, he was already making headways into the world of business at the time, operating his own cafe in Prague and helping as a manager for the Libuš divisional team. It was in Libuš that he used the contacts established during his football career. He arranged with the Qatar-based Al Arabi SC team, then home to famous players Stefan Effenberg and Gabriel Batistuta, that it would come to Prague for a three-week training camp. In the end, the Libuš team played a friendly match against Al Arabi SC, which was attended by 3000 people, a number unheard of in Libuš. 

PAVEL STEINER DURING A TOUR OF THE LEGENDARY AMFORA

Moreover, Pavel Steiner was partly employed with Bohemia Air, a company that belonged to another acquaintance from the world of football, Hans Spycher. He even got a pilot’s license for this purpose, adding to his already extensive collection of driver’s licenses. It was while working for Bohemia Air that he discovered his future business niche. For when arranging transfers from the airport for the VIP clients flying to Prague on private jets at the time, he was unable to find a company that offered services to meet the quality standard expected by his customers. So he created that company himself.

Still under the Limousine Car Service brand, he bought the first Audi A8 limousine, soon adding a Mercedes S Class and a Mercedes Viano minivan. During the first year and a half of the company’s operation, he took orders and divided them among the drivers. If none were available, he drove the car himself. For a year and a half, he worked 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, in 2006 the promising company hit rock bottom after his business partner indebted the firm. In order to rebuild it, he sold all of his property including the prosperous cafe. Finally, he managed to relaunch the business, and after surviving the difficult economic crisis, he developed the company into a strong player on the private transportation market.

Limousine Car Service employed over 100 drivers and handled 8500 bookings every month. Its clients included companies like DHL, IBM, PPF and InBev, and for 10 years it provided exclusive transportation services across Europe for ExxonMobil. The vehicle fleet gradually expanded to include buses, via which the company could transport larger numbers of passengers for its clients, and it also started focussing on tour and incoming transportation.

The year 2014 saw another major turning point - Pavel Steiner entered into a partnership with the German carrier FlixBus, for which he started organising international bus lines. In the early months, this involved links between Prague - Mainz and Prague - Dusseldorf, soon adding the Prague - Hamburg and Prague - Vienna - Berlin routes. The bus and limousine businesses were overarched by the Umbrella brand. “It happened by accident. I had several companies at the time. For instance, we arranged car washing or event services, and clients were pressuring me to bring them together under a single brand. For a long time, I couldn’t think of a name, but during the 2008 European Football Championships in Switzerland and Austria, I was playing golf with the brewmaster from the Pilsen brewery, Honza Hlaváček. It started raining and he called to me to ‘pass that umbrella’. At that instant, it was clear to me. What else should I bring the companies together under than an umbrella?” Pavel Steiner laughs today.

The partnership with FlixBus was highly beneficial to both parties, and in 2017 they joined forces to launch domestic lines – soon there were 33 green Umbrella buses with the FlixBus logo crisscrossing the Czech Republic. Pavel Steiner and his team also organised the complete background structure for FlixBus in the Czech Republic, including sales offices in Prague and Brno. In order to concentrate entirely on the bus business, he sold Limousine Car Service in spring 2016, while his cooperation with FlixBus continued. “Even while developing the network of domestic lines for FlixBus, we knew we would hand it over to Czech carriers at some point, because we wanted to concentrate on international links. So after a brief period, Umbrella withdrew from domestic lines entirely, and we shifted the buses we had operated on them to international connections, primarily in Scandinavia,” he explains.

Today, the Prague-based Umbrella enterprise in cooperation with FlixBus operates transportation across Europe. From its branches in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, it coordinates 5400 connections every month, linking more than 500 destinations in 19 European countries. In the next two years, it plans to open more branches in Paris and Amsterdam. Umbrella is currently one of FlixBus’s most important partners in Europe, and is among the TOP 20 carriers in the entire FlixBus network in terms of quality. In addition to cooperation with FlixBus, the company also engages in city and commuter transport (since 2019 it has been operating city and commuter buses in Hamburg, and will be adding Munich and Berlin this and next year), tour and incoming transportation, turnkey travel services and boat and yacht rentals.

Over the years, Umbrella has grown into a company that employs more than 400 people in the Czech Republic and Germany. “When signing the contract with FlixBus in 2014, I felt a little bit like Petr Janda, singing that song Me, Me, Me, Only Me. Thankfully, those times when I personally had to deal with there not being e.g. toilet paper on our buses, is over,” Peter Steiner recalls. “Umbrella has progressed immensely in those few years. Today, I have a team of excellent people, who have adopted my principles and know how to tug on one rope and work together. I can actually tangibly feel the company’s drive, how it’s moving ahead. It’s like shifting gears, without even being aware of it.”

Today, Pavel Steiner is responsible for the company’s future development strategy, selecting the vehicle fleet, negotiation with financial institutions, leasing companies and bus suppliers. He also runs the business aspect of communicating with its most important partner, FlixBus. In his free time, he even returns to football on occasion, playing 8 to 10 matches a year as the goalie for Amfora. “With Amfora, it’s more of a social affair than a real match. On the other hand, there may not be much sprinting involved, but as soon as Petr Salava, Karel Dobiáš, Tonda Panenka, Přemysl Byčovský or Honza Berger appear on the pitch, you have to be on your guard for any tricks they might come up with,” he laughs. In summer, he enjoys the seaside, relaxing at the rudder of the Umbrella Victoria yacht.

Photo: Umbrella Mobility/Greta Blumajerová and Pavel Steiner’s archive