Adam Karabec is a Czech attacking midfielder or winger who joined Olympique Lyonnais on a season-long loan from Sparta Prague towards the end of the summer 2025 transfer window. Lyon reportedly paid a loan fee of €300,000 and have an option to pay €3.5 million to make the transfer permanent.
His arrival doubled the Czech contingent in the Lyon squad, as it come hot on the heels of his compatriot Pavel Šulc joining from Viktoria Plzeň. The pair became the third and fourth Czech players to represent Lyon, following in the footsteps of striker Milan Baroš (2007–2008) and midfielder Antonín Tichý (1950–1953). Czechoslovakia international Ján Popluhár also played for the club in the 1969-70 season, but he was born in what is now Slovakia.
Prague Upbringing
Karabec was born in the Czech capital, Prague, and began his career in the youth setup of local club Bohemians 1905. He later moved to the Sparta Prague academy and began a long association with the record Czech champions that took him from his early teens into his twenties.
His progress through the youth ranks brought him to the attention of the national team setup and he was selected for the Czech Republic U-15 squad for the first time in November 2017. He made ten appearances for them in friendly internationals that season, including a 6-4 defeat to an England team captained by a young Jude Bellingham. He found the net in friendlies against the Uruguay, Ireland and Croatia U-15 selections.
The following season, Karabec moved up to the Czech U-16 squad and played regularly, making 14 appearances and scoring three times, including a brace against Belgium. Towards the end of the season, he was handed his debut for Sparta Prague U-19s in the 1. Dorostenecka Liga (the top-tier youth football league in the Czech Republic). He made quite the impact, coming off the bench at half time to score twice and help turn a 2-0 deficit against Viktoria Plzeň into a 3-2 victory.
Rise to the first team
The 2019-20 season will primarily be remembered around the globe as the first campaign to be disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Adam Karabec will look back on it with fondness as the year he made his big breakthrough into the senior ranks. His rise during those twelve months was meteoric.
There was a hint of things to come when he was nominated as Player of the Tournament in the pre-season U-19 competition the CEE Cup. Sparta Prague lost out to serial tournament winners Palmeiras U19 in the final. He began the domestic season in the 1. Dorostenecka Liga but quickly found himself promoted to the Sparta Prague B team, playing in the third tier Bohemian Football League (ČFL). Karabec was soon amongst the goals at that level and also gained his first caps for the Czech U-19 team that autumn.
During the winter break he played in a couple of friendlies with the first team and then travelled with the squad for warm weather training in Marbella. When Sparta lost their first league game after the break, head coach Václav Jílek was dismissed and the B team coach, Václav Kotal, was promoted as his replacement. Kotal handed his former B team prodigy a first team debut as a late substitute in his first game in charge.
Karabec had to wait until after the first Covid lockdown for a second taste of top-flight action. There were a further three substitute appearances when football resumed in late May. The first of those delivered his maiden goal, making him the third youngest scorer in the history of the Czech top division. He made his first start in the penultimate Fortuna Liga game of the season and recorded his first assist. Sparta made it into the championship play-offs and ultimately finished third.
Under-21 International
Karabec was rewarded with a first call-up to the Czech U-21 team later that summer, aged just seventeen, and a few days later he was drafted into the full Czechia squad for a UEFA Nations League tie with Scotland, but remained an unused substitute. English newspaper The Guardian included him in their Next Generation 2020: 60 of the best young talents in world football article that October.
Adam Karabec was a regular in the Sparta Prague first team squad from the beginning on the 2020-21 season onwards. Initially he found himself on the bench waiting to be deployed as a late substitute, but as the season wore on he began to get a few starts. He racked up a total of 23 Fortuna Liga appearances (17 as substitute) and scored three goals during that first full season with the senior team as they finished second in the table. He also made his debut in European competition during their Europa League group stage campaign.
March 2021 saw Karabec included in the Czechia squad for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals in Hungary and Slovenia. Starting alongside future Lyon team mate Pavel Šulc in attacking midfield, Karabec got an assist in the opening game against Italy. His free-kick provoked an own goal by Giulio Maggiore to level the scores and secure a 1-1 draw.
He came off the bench in the second game with Czechia trailing 1-0 against Slovenia and helped the Czechs fight back to salvage another 1-1 draw to set up a decisive final Group B fixture against Spain. Despite his best efforts, the Spanish U-21 team proved too strong and Czechia exited the tournament on the back of a 2-0 defeat.
Talent of the Year
2021-22 proved to be an even busier season for the young forward as he made 42 appearances for Sparta across all competitions, plus a further nine for the Czech U-21 team in European Championship qualifying. His personal highlight would doubtless have been the Czech Talent of the Year award that was bestowed upon him as 2021 drew to a close. It recognises the best young Czech player each calendar year.
On the pitch, there were several highlights, including a European campaign that incorporated all three UEFA competitions and continued into late February. Sparta began in Champions League qualifying and dismissed Rapid Vienna before a defeat to AS Monaco dumped them into the Europa League. There they were drawn into Group A alongside Brøndby, Rangers and Olympique Lyonnais. Karabec was used sparingly by coach Pavel Vrba, but he did feature as a late substitute in both fixtures against Lyon. Perhaps he did enough during his fleeting appearances in that pair of defeats to make someone at Lyon note his name down as one for the future.
A third place finish in the group saw them drop into the Conference League play-off round where they were eliminated by Partizan Belgrade. The domestic cup treated them more kindly and they reached the final against Slovacko in May. Karabec started the final in the number ten role but failed to make an impression on the game and was replaced at half time with Sparta trailing 3-1, which proved to be the final score. In the league, Sparta had to settle for third place.
Title Triumph
Internationally, Karabec continued to progress and he found the net four times in those aforementioned European Championship qualifying matches, including a penalty against England in a 3-1 defeat at Turf Moor. Anthony Gordon scored a brace for the hosts with Folarin Balogun grabbing the other. Despite a pair of defeats against England, the Czechs did make it through to the finals.
The following season heralded the first major honours of Adam Karabec’s career, as Sparta Prague lifted the Czech league title for the first time in nine years. They finished top of the regular season table, two points ahead of their rivals Slavia Prague, with Karabec having scored twice in 20 appearances. That advantage was wiped out during the six team championship play-off and they finished level on points with Slavia but earned the title thanks to their superior regular season record.
Sparta also made it all the way to the Czech cup final again, but suffered a second consecutive disappointment in the showpiece occasion. This time it was Slavia who got the better of them. Karabec played the full ninety minutes of the final, which took place at their home Stadion Letná, but he drew a blank in a 2-0 defeat.
A second U-21 Euros
The season ended with the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Romania and Georgia, where the Czechs were placed in Group C alongside Germany Israel and eventual winners England. Karabec came off the bench in the opener against England to replace Šulc in the 66th minute but the Czechs were already trailing 1-0 to a Jacob Ramsey strike and ended up losing 2-0 after Emile Smith Rowe finished the job in stoppage time.
It was the other way around in the second match against Germany with Šulc replacing Karabec in the 74th minute. It was 1-1 at the time and Czechia rallied late on to win 2-1. However, they couldn’t capitalise on that performance in the final group game, where they lost 1-0 to the Israelis, with Karabec starting but being withdrawn at the interval when it was still deadlocked at 0-0. They ended up in third place in the group and were eliminated.
Double Delight
There was only one way to top Sparta’s 2022-23 season, and that was by going one better in 2023-24 and winning the double, which they duly did in style. Karabec had his most productive league season in front of goal, scoring four times in the regular season. He also provided three assists from his position on the right side of a front three. They topped the table by four points and held onto top spot through the championship play-offs to retain their title.
Sparta’s MOL Cup campaign looked to be going down the pan when they were trailing 2-0 to Slavia at their rival’s Fortuna Arena in the quarter-finals. However, a brace from Victor Olatunji forced extra time and Karabec came off the bench to score a penalty in the 114th minute and put Sparta into the semis. That was actually his last involvement in the cup run as he missed the semi and remained on the bench during the 2-1 win against Viktoria Plzen in the final. However, he did finally get his hands on a winner’s medal after two years of heartbreak.
Hamburger Hero
In July 2024, just two days after his twenty-first birthday, Adam Karabec transferred to Hamburger SV on loan. The German giants had been languishing in the 2. Bundesliga (the second division) for six seasons, never finishing lower than fourth, but never quite managing to secure promotion back to the elite. Thanks in part to the arrival of the young Czech, that was about to change.
Karabec went straight into the Hamburg starting XI for the first game of the season and got an assist in a 2-1 win at 1.FC Köln. From there on he was almost ever-present, missing only three games all season as Die Rothosen chased the title. He weighed in with three goals and seven assists from an attacking midfield role. Sadly a final day defeat to Greuther Fürth meant they missed out on first place, but they did enough to finish second and secure that long awaited promotion.
Another U-21 Euros
That summer, Karabec became the first Czech player to feature in three UEFA European Under-21 championships when he travelled to the finals in neighbouring Slovakia. Once again the Czechs were drawn into a group containing England and Germany, with Slovenia making up the numbers.
They faced England in their opening game at the DAC Aréna in Dunajská Streda. Adam Karabec began the match on the bench and saw England take a 2-0 lead with goals from Harvey Elliott and Jonathan Rowe before Daniel Fila pulled one back for the Czechs. Karabec replaced Fila in the 64th minute but couldn’t inspire his team to find an equaliser. Instead a Charlie Cresswell header wrapped it up for England with a quarter of an hour left to play. Also featuring as a late substitute in that match was Tyler Morton, who would join Karabec in moving to Lyon later that summer.
Karabec started the final two group matches, a 4-2 defeat to Germany and a 2-0 win against Slovenia in which he provided the assist for the second goal. Unfortunately that win was too little too late and the Czechs finished third in Group B for another group stage exit. His three appearances at the tournament took Karabec up to an impressive 29 caps (and 5 goals) for the Czechia U-21 team.
Full international
Three months later, he was called up to the full Czech squad by manager Ivan Hasek for a friendly match against Saudi Arabia at the Malšovická aréna in Hradec Králové. He came on to make his full international debut at half time in the 1-1 draw and will hope to be more heavily involved in the future.
Hamburg did have an option to try and purchase Karabec outright at the end of his loan spell and they were reportedly keen to do so, but they couldn’t agree a price with Sparta Prague. That’s when Lyon stepped in to take him on loan to France. He made his Lyon debut as a very late substitute in the 1-0 win away at Lens on the opening day of the Ligue 1 season.
He came off the bench again a week later in the home clash with Metz and crowned his first appearance at the Groupama Stadium with the goal that wrapped up a 3-0 win. His first Lyon start came the following weekend in a 1-0 home win against Marseille in the ‘Olympico’ derby and he’s rapidly establishing himself as an important squad member for ‘Les Gones‘.
Lyon were forced to scour the transfer market for bargains in the summer of 2025 due to their parlous financial state and a mass exodus of experienced first team players. The total wage bill was reportedly slashed and they must adhere to strict financial stipulations from both UEFA and the French football authorities over the coming few seasons. Therefore, young rough diamonds such as Adam Karabec will be crucial to their renaissance. Hopefully he’ll go on to realise his full potential.