Who is better, Železný or Masopust?
Jan Železný leads with a cross-sport score of 86.9 against 84.7 for Josef Masopust — a gap of 2.2 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Železný vs Masopust
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Jan Železný above Josef Masopust: 86.9 vs 84.7. Jan Železný leads on Dominance, Statistics, Honours.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →Cross-sport verdictgoatrank.world
ŽeleznýWinner
86.9Železný wins: Dominance, Peak, Longevity, Honours, Statistics
Masopust
84.7Masopust wins: no category outright
Candidates
Locked to AthleticsShareable URL · /compare/jan-zelezny-vs-josef-masopust
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Cross-sport GOAT score
🇨🇿 Jan Železný
86.9
90.5 in-sport × 0.96 Global participation & competition depth
Železný leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Jan Železnýdepth ×0.96
2. Josef Masopustdepth ×1.00
Category breakdown
Season form · season output
Career timeline · season output
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Career stage · GOAT pace
Through season 5 · season output1. 🇨🇿 Jan Železný5 seasons played · career day 2,921448.4 output
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇨🇿 Josef Masopust5 seasons played · career day 1,825268 output
-40.2% vs Železný at the same stage
| Ghost race · career day | 30 | 100 | 365 | 1000 | 1825 | 3650 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇨🇿 Železný | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 87.66 | 543.98 |
| 🇨🇿 Masopust | 0 | 0 | 45 | 94 | 268 | 561 |
Careers are aligned from debut; the first 5 season periods are measured against the same career window.
| Metric | ŽeleznýRetired | MasopustRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Dominance w25% | 90 | 80 |
| Peak w20% | 93 | 92 |
| Longevity w20% | 88 | 86 |
| Honours w20% | 90 | 84 |
| Statistics w15% | 92 | 82 |
| Olympic golds | 3 | — |
| World Championship golds | 3 | — |
| World records | 5 | — |
| Javelin world record (m) | 98.48 | — |
| Olympic medals | 4 | — |
| Throws over 90 m | 34 | — |
| Ballon d'Or awards | — | 1 |
| World Cup finals | — | 1 |
| Czechoslovak league titles | — | 8 |
| Czechoslovakia caps | — | 63 |
| Seasons played | — | 25 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Železný86.9
Masopust84.7
FAQ
Where does Masopust beat Železný?
Masopust does not lead any of the five categories; Železný is ahead or level on all of them.
How can athletes from different sports be compared?
Each in-sport GOAT score is multiplied by Competition Depth: Železný 0.96 (athletics) and Masopust 1.00 (football). Deeper, more global sports keep more of their score.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Železný vs Masopust. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.