From Playboy models and revenge adult pics to bricks through car windows and prison – the life of a Premier League cult hero is as wild as his temper was on the pitch
An ex-Premier League hothead who was sent off 20 times in his career had an equally turbulent life away from the pitch – ending up in prison after two divorces and a shocking scandal.
Tomas Repka joined West Ham from Italian side Fiorentina early in Glenn Roeder’s time as manager, for a then club record fee of £5.5million in September 2001. The highly-rated Czech defender made an immediate impression – but it wasn’t a good one. However, it’s nothing compared to the trouble he’s got up to since.
Football hardman Repka, who turned 51 on Friday, made 179 appearances for the Hammers between 2001 and 2006. But they got off to the worst possible start – a red card for two bookable offences on his full Premier League debut in a 2-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.
Just two games later, after serving a one-match ban, West Ham‘s new man saw red again, for another brace of yellow cards. This time in a crushing 7-1 loss against Blackburn Rovers.
You certainly knew what you were getting on the pitch from the former Czech international who represented his country 46 times – bags of aggression and a never-say-die attitude. And after West Ham were relegated, he showed plenty of fight to help them win promotion back to the Premier League.
However, it was off the pitch that saw Repka get himself in the most hot water. Both in terms of family life and legal troubles, the former fullback had a reputation for breaking the rules and having very little consideration of the consequences.
Repka left London in 2006 and returned to former club Sparta Prague. He then signed for Ceske Budejovice. And in 2012 the Czech hardman admitted to fixing a game for Ceske, in order to exact his vengeance against Sparta Prague president Daniel Kretinsky.
Repka had previously accused Kretinsky of treating him unfairly when he left the club and confessed to how he deliberately gave away a penalty against Liberec, to help them pip Sparta to the title.
He said: “At that particular moment I was not thinking. I did hurt the team as a whole. But I was fuelled by human vanity, and I wanted to settle a score with Mr Kretinsky. I think that to me did not behave fairly to me when I was leaving from Sparta, so I promised him I’d get him back. Hopefully I succeeded.”
The emotional defender didn’t keep his thoughts to himself, that’s for sure. But what made things worse was the way in which he has continued such a wild life after football.
Repka was married to Renata Repkova for 16 years and had two children with his then-wife – daughter Veronika and son Tomasso. However, their divorce in 2012 sparked a whole host of chaotic events.
Despite frequently denying having an affair with Playboy model Vladka Erbova to Renata, things deteriorated in his marital relationship. In his autobiography, he described how Renata caught him in the act with Playmate, actress and manicurist Vladka, dubbed ‘the Czech Halle Berry’.
The two women apparently got into a fiery argument, before Renata threw a brick at Repka’s car, smashing the rear window.
All the denials and lies were a waste of time. Repka confessed: “The denial was not worth it and I had to tell Renata the truth.” They divorced in May 2012.
That very same month, Vladka gave birth to their son Markus – confirming exactly what the football badboy had been up to during his marriage to Renata.
He and Vladka – who was seven years his junior and was previously married to a professional hockey player with whom she had a daughter – had actually got engaged in December 2011. They married in July 2013.
But by July 2016, Repka was getting divorced for the second time in four years, after claims both had been unfaithful to the other. The Playboy model and TV star had given birth to Repka’s third child, but their relationship deteriorated and they went their separate ways.
Repka would later say he didn’t want her to continue using his surname. He said: “It’s a great shame for me that this lady has it. I’m ashamed that she was ever my wife.”
Repka soon embarked on a new relationship with another younger woman, TV presenter Katerina Kristelova. But he wasn’t done with Vladka.
In August 2018, Repka was jailed for six months after advertising sexual services under the name of Vladka in an act of revenge.
Previous disagreements over the way that Repka should contribute child maintenance for Markus had sparked an uneasy relationship between the two.
The then-44-year-old’s partner Katerina was fined around £1,800 for her role in posting the first of three online escort ads under the guise of being Vladka.
Repka’s sentence was later reduced to a community order. Speaking at the time, he said: “I’m sorry – it was wrong of me. But my relationship with my ex-wife was not good. I wasn’t able to see my son, and the situation escalated.”
Vladka meanwhile spoke of the pain of her ordeal. She said: “I collapsed when I found out who had done it. I could not sleep. I needed to see a psychiatrist, and I am going into therapy.”
In yet another strange turn for Repka’s private life, criticism from online trolls led to him and Katerina opening a court case against anyone who they said had targeted them online.
One woman, Marie, was made to pay a fine of £340 and issue an apology to both of them after being found to have committed a misdemeanour.
Responding to an Instagram story showing Katerina in a church, she had called the TV star a “pirate”, also making reference to her “plastic face”.
But soon Repka was in trouble again and facing more court proceedings. In February 2019, he was sentenced to a total of 15 months in jail for fraud.
A Prague court heard how he sold a luxury Mercedes rental car which he did not own to a woman. Two previous suspended sentences for driving under the influence were also converted into jail terms due to his other convictions, adding up to a further nine months behind bars.
The wrongdoings had eventually caught up with Repka, who this time was forced to serve his sentence. However, he was released after just seven months in prison.