Jan Lastuvka is a goalkeeper, who was born on July 7, 1982 in Havirov, Czech Republic. He started his international career with Czech Republic Under-16 side during the 1998-99 season and played 4 games for the team. Later, he successively graduated to the Under-17 and Under-18 teams in the consecutive seasons, 1999-2000 and 2000-01. Jan Lastuvka moved up to the Czech Republic Under-20 team in 2002 and soon got promoted to the Under-21 level. He has earned 17 international caps during the 2002-03 season for the Under-21 Czech team.
Jan Lastuvka started his football career in 1992 with the youth team of MFK Karvina, a Czech football club and in 1999 he graduated to the senior side. After playing three matches during the 1999-2000 season, he moved to the FC Banik Ostrava, another Czech club. In the four years with the club, Jan Lastuvka played 79 games and went on to win the Czech Liga title in the 2003-2004 season. In the same year, he joined FC Shakhtar Donetsk, a top-level Ukrainian football club and participated in thirty seven games including six Champions League matches in his first season at the club. Jan Lastuvka was a part of the team that lifted the Ukrainian League Championship trophy twice in the consecutive years, 2005 and 2006.
On August 31, 2006, Jan Lastuvka was loaned to the Fulham football club by Shakhtar Donetsk and he debuted for Fulham on December 2, 2006 in a match against Blackburn Rovers. On January 1, 2007, in a game against Watford, he entered the field as a second-half substitute for Antti Niemi, which ended in a 0-0 draw amidst cheers for every save by Jan Lastuvka. During his loan period, he appeared in eight matches for the club. In 2007-08, the next season, he was sent on loan to Vfl Bochum, a German football club and became the club’s first-choice goalkeeper. The team’s performance in a match against Werder Bremen, a top-class German football club, was acknowledged by Der Kicker, one of the leading football magazines of Germany, with a nomination for the ‘Team of the Day’. He went on to star in 25 matches for Bochum. On the recommendation of Ludek Miklosko, the Czech goalkeeping coach at West Ham United, Jan Lastuvka was loaned by West Ham from Donetsk and he became the third Czech goalkeeper there. The coach feels that he will prove to be a good addition along with Jimmy Walker and will serve as a back-up to Robert Green
