Early Life
Bican was born in Vienna to Ludmila and František Bican. He was the second of three children. Ludmila was Viennese Czech and František came from Sedlice in Southern Bohemia. Josef's father František was a footballer who played for Hertha Vienna. He went to fight in World War I and returned uninjured. However, František was to die at the age of just 30 in 1921 because he refused an operation to treat a kidney injury sustained in a football match. His mother worked in a restaurant kitchen. The family's poverty meant that Bican had to play football without any shoes, which helped him hone his ball control skills. Bican attended the Jan Amos Komenský school, a Czech school in Vienna. Four years after his father's death in 1925, twelve-year old Bican started to play for the Hertha Vienna junior team, Hertha Vienna II. When he was 18, Bican was spotted by Rapid Vienna, who were a big club in the city at the time.
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