TOMAS HOLY is so tall even Peter Crouch would be dwarfed in his presence.
Standing at 6ft 9in — 2m 6cm — the Carlisle keeper is the joint tallest professional footballer in Britain alongside Huddersfield's Kyle Hudlin.
And after starring as a penalty shootout hero at Wembley against Stockport to win promotion to League One, the Czech ace is hoping to scale new heights this season.
Holy, 31, comes from a family of giants — revealing his dad is 6ft 6in and mum 6ft.
Meeting me at the club’s Brunton Park ground, he had to duck through doorways — and when kneeling on one knee is almost the same height as boss Paul Simpson.
He said: “My mum kept a year-by-year book of my medical records which showed my height and it was normal until I was 12 but then I grew 40 to 50cm in two years.
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“It caused me issues as my shoulders didn’t grow as quickly as my body.
“All my family are tall — my mum’s brothers are around 6ft 7in, 6ft 8in.”
One of them — his uncle Ondrej Volsik — is also a keeper and he inspired a young Holy to don the gloves.
He said: “I started playing football aged five by accident. I was annoying my mum by being too energetic so she rang a local coach and asked, ‘Please can you take my Tomas in for a session. You don’t need to involve him, just let him run off his energy.’
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“I fell in love with football and started playing outfield.
“But my uncle — just two years older — was like a brother to me. He ended up playing for the Czech under-age groups and almost went to the Southampton academy.
“When I was ten he chucked me his old gloves. One day my team needed a keeper and, because I had his gloves, volunteered. I played goalie for a while before going back outfield.
“However as I got to 13, the training sessions had longer running distances and I was way behind the others. So I said, ‘Listen coach, I’m not made for running’ and asked if I could go back in goal.”
Holy moved to England in 2017 when he joined Gillingham from Sparta Prague and made 97 League One starts before switching to Ipswich two years later making a further 57 league appearances in three years.
In his first season with the Tractor Boys he equalled a then club record by keeping five consecutive clean sheets in the league and during his second 17 in 37 games.
But he fell down the pecking order and was loaned to Cambridge then Port Vale.
Holy moved to Carlisle last summer but was initially worried because he feared Cumbrians had a SCOTTISH accent.
He said: “When they showed interest, I checked exactly where Carlisle was and I thought, ‘Oh god, it’s literally the North Pole!’
“It’s next to Scotland and I remembered how difficult it was to understand what Scotsman Paul Lambert was saying when he was Ipswich manager. I always had to ask goalkeeper coach Jimmy Walker to translate!
“Carlisle’s recruitment guy Greg Abbott rang me and I liked what he was telling me about the club but he mentioned manager Paul Simpson grew up in the area and was a local legend.
“Then a couple of hours later Paul wanted a Zoom meeting and I thought, ‘Oh no, a Carlisle person is going to have a Scottish accent!’
“So I found the quietest place to understand his voice as best I could — but when he started speaking I heard the purest English voice since I moved over here. I can understand him as clear as someone speaking Czech!”
Things could not have worked out better in his first season with Holy saving the second Stockport spot-kick at Wembley in May as Carlisle prevailed 5-4 on penalties to win promotion.
The keeper revealed that a combination of working with a Czech mental coach that turned around his career when he was younger and visiting Wembley two days before the game helped him triumph.
He said: “When I moved to Sparta aged 19, I had an ego to match my height. I was stupid. I was in the city as a young kid with my first contract and money.
“My ego couldn’t handle it. It was a case of, ‘no-one is above me, I’m the best.’ Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone there to keep me grounded.
“I argued with everyone. When I was criticised, I didn’t accept it.
I was able to picture the game, being in that stadium, in that goal and making that save. I was able to block out the crowd.
“Then when I played in a friendly for Sparta, the ball slipped through my hands to gift a goal to the opposition.
“I wanted everyone to feel sorry for me but no one gave a damn. I wasn’t mentally strong enough to talk to myself and unfortunately I didn’t have anyone to speak to me either.
“So the trigger came when I found a mental coach called Katerya. Without her I dread to think where I’d be now. For my path at Prague it was too late — but fortunately not for the next chapter of my career.
“When we went to look at Wembley two days before the final, we were able to absorb the size of the stadium so it wouldn’t be a shock on the day itself.
“And in those two days I was able to picture the game, being in that stadium, in that goal and making that save. I was able to block out the crowd.
“Although I saved the second penalty, I thought I’d need to stop another one but the boys showed nerves of steel to convert our five.”
And Holy admits Carlisle’s Wembley heroics stopped him getting an ear-bashing from his mum.
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He laughed: “Because my mum only gets to see me in the off-season, she had told me, ‘You better get promoted automatically’ so when we made the play-offs she wasn’t happy because it meant I had to delay flying home.
“But when I returned with a medal in my hand all was forgiven!”
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