[2][3][4] He is considered by RSSSF as the second-most prolific goalscorer in history after Erwin Helmchen, with over 950 goals scored in 624 official matches.

Bican won four league titles during his time in Austria,[6][7] moved to Slavia Prague in 1937, where he stayed until 1948, and became the club's all-time top goalscorer.

[9] Bican was a member of the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s and represented the nation at the 1934 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the semi-finals.

In 1998, Bican was given a "Medal of Honour" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) for being among the world's most successful top division goalscorers of all time.

However, František died at the early age of 30 in 1921 after refusing an operation to treat an infected kidney after an injury sustained during a football match.

Hertha Vienna officials gave František a nice funeral and told Ludmila that they would take care of her sons and would even give them an education.

Ludmila's life got harder as she had to work twice as hard as before, cleaning crayfish and washing dishes at a nearby restaurant.

[13] The family's poverty meant that Bican initially had to play football without shoes, which helped him improve his ball control skills.

[15] In 1925, at the age of twelve, Bican was already playing in the youth set-up of Hertha Vienna [de], his father's beloved club,[10] and also where his idol, Matthias Sindelar had begun his career.

[15] It is said that once his mother, who had come to watch him, was so annoyed about a foul her son received that she ran onto the pitch and beat the opponent with her umbrella.

“I already told Richard Kuthan about it.” In his first youth game for the club, he scored seven goals, and so he was promoted to the Amateur side, which was typically for 18- and 19-year-olds.

[17][10] In his debut game against Austria Wien, club where Matthias Sindelar played, Bican scored four goals in a victory 5–3.

[18] Bican recalls the game as this: "Sometime in the tenth minute, I received the ball from the right, in a large amount of space, went around Gall and with my left foot, I scored the first goal, into the corner.

Weselik broke through and struck a shot that hit the cross bar, on the rebound I hooked the ball into the net, again, with my left foot.

For my fourth, I luckily got past Mock and only Gall was in front of me, he took me to the ground, but I was still able to shoot and score the decisive fifth goal.

When he was allowed to leave, Bican won championships in both his seasons with the Vienna club, but his heart was set on his family's homeland.

[22] During early January 1937, Bican left Admira Vienna to join Czech club Slavia Prague, he signed a contract for them, despite being on a friendly tour of Egypt.

Bican was again the top scorer of the league, this time with 29 goals, but Sparta Prague, Slavia's greatest rival, won the championship again.

[29] He was in the leagues that he played, the top-scorer 12 times during his 25-year professional career and Europe's and the world's top scorer in five consecutive seasons, from 1939–40 to 1943–44, a record that still stands.

However, when he eventually became a Czechoslovak citizen, he discovered that a clerical error meant he couldn't play at the 1938 World Cup.

He scored two hat-tricks for Czechoslovakia, including a four-goal haul against Romania in the 1937–38 Eduard Benes Cup in a 6–2 win.

[33] His final national team appearance was for Czechoslovakia in a 3–1 defeat against Bulgaria on 4 September 1949, a few days short from his 36th birthday.

Other members of the team became jealous of the tall, handsome Bican's success, and he was sometimes called abusive names, such as "Austrian bastard".

Grandfather František’s second son Josef, died during the war and for financial support they took 50 koruna per month.

Former Austrian player Franz "Bimbo" Binder suggested Bican, who he claimed to have scored over 5000 goals in all competitions.

[38] When reporters asked Bican why he had not sought more attention for his goalscoring feats, he simply said, "who'd have believed me if I said I'd scored five times as many goals as Pelé?"

But shortly before his death in 2001, IFFHS based on RSSSF statistics declared Bican with 643 league goals, the most prolific scorer of the 20th century.

[4] After suffering from heart problems for several months,[43] Bican died in Prague on 12 December 2001 at the age of 88,[44] and was buried in Vyšehrad cemetery.

On 25 September 2013, which would have been Bican's 100th birthday, Slavia Prague commemorated him by wearing shirts that featured a replica of his signature on them.

Excellent technique with left or right foot, outstanding headers, perfect positional play, precise passing and, above all, an incredible goalscorer.