James "Jiří" Jarošík (born October 27, 1977 in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech football player. He is currently on loan at FA Premier League club Birmingham City from Chelsea.
An attacking midfielder by personal preference, but versatile enough to play in a more defensive role, Jarosík began his career with Sparta Prague in his native Czech Republic. He had loan spells at Slovan Liberec before establishing himself in the first team at Sparta. His appearances caught the eye of Spartak Varna, who paid a Bulgarian record of about $5 million to acquire him in 2003.
Jarošík was purchased by Chelsea in January 2005 for an undisclosed fee thought to be about $4.5 million. He was a squad player at Chelsea, as opposed to a first choice player. In August 2005, just after Chelsea purchased Michael Essien, he was loaned out to Birmingham City on for the 2005-06 season. Birmingham will have the option to make the deal permanent when the spell ends.
Jarošík scored a tremendous goal against Norwich City in the League Cup in 2005-06 season to send Birmingham through to the next round.
Jarošík has played for the Czech national team, although he was out of favour for Euro 2004 in Portugal.
