Petr Cech Tells Story of How He Became a Goalkeeper.

It will baffle you to know that Petr Cech did not start out as a goalkeeper. The 33-year-old made this revelation in an interview with the Arsenal Magazine.

According to what he revealed, he was initially a ice hockey goalkeeper. He later started playing football as a midfielder/winger but on a particular occasion, he had to stand in for his team's goalkeeper who was not available for the game.

His impressive performance on that day made him appear between the sticks in more games and the turning point came when he broke his leg at the age of 10.

After a while on the sidelines, he still could not run well as a midfielder so he had to sit in goal. Eversince then, his passion in the position grew which is why he is now Arsenal's number one.

"I never thought of being a goalkeeper," the goalkeeper told the Arsenal Magazine. "I was an ice hockey goalkeeper and when I started playing football, I was a midfielder or a left winger.

"Occasionally at the end of training sessions, when you had a free game with no keeper, where the deepest player acted as a goalkeeper, sometimes I went into goal because I wanted to see the difference between a big goal and a small ice hockey goal.

"My coach saw me a few times and one day, our goalkeeper didn't come for a game. We had no keeper and somebody had to play there, but nobody really wanted to. He pointed to me and said 'I've seen you a few times in goal and you've been doing quite well. You should try it.'"

"I said I would do it for one match and we ended up having a very good game. The next day, when I came for the training session, the goalkeeping coach took me and said that I should stay with him.

"But then my coach didn't want to listen to that. For about a year, I was playing outfield or in goal depending on the opponents.

"Then when I was about 10 I broke my leg quite badly and the recovery took time. I couldn't run and I had pain for quite a long time.

"Being in goal means you can sit, you can lie, you can catch balls and you can still work and train. That made the biggest difference in my life because that moment defined that I stayed in goal."

Cech joined Arsenal from Chelsea in June and has since then won two minor trophies in his two appearances; one in the Barclays Asia Trophy and another in the Emirates Cup which held last week.

Tomorrow is another day to add to that. Arsenal will be clashing with Chelsea in the Community Shield on Sunday and the Czech international is expected to start in goal against his former side.