"Dyed Foxes". A few years ago, Jan Tomaszewski called that for foreigners who wanted to play football with a white eagle on their chest. Nothing new. Already 80 years ago, foreign players joined the Polish national team. And they won the hearts of the fans.
Polish football was born relatively late. When the English Football Federation was established in 1863, Poles were bled to the blood while fighting in the January Uprising. However, even before regaining independence, the Polish Football Association was established, and in 1927 the games were inaugurated by the football league. One of its stars was the striker of Warta Poznań, Fryderyk Scherfke.
Fryc kicks the Polish ball
"Fryc", as his teammates called him, was born in 1909 in Poznań as Friedrich Egon Scherfke. At the age of 17, he made his debut in the local Warta, where scored 134 goals, to this day retaining the title of the most effective player in the history of the club . He also played twelve times for the Polish national team, for which he scored a goal against Brazil at the 1938 World Cup.
Beginning of the Poland-Brazil match in 1938.
Scherfke's great career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Due to his origin, the footballer became a player of 1. FC Posen, but he did not stay there for a long time. He was quickly incorporated into the Wehrmacht. He was wounded during the fighting in Yugoslavia, was taken prisoner, and after the end of the war he moved to West Berlin, where he ran a furniture store.
Nazi footballer or Polish hero?
In communist Poland, "Fryc" was hailed a traitor, and the communist propaganda concealed his contribution to Poles during the occupation . Scherfke has warned at least a few people about the impending arrest, but the most interesting is the case of the footballer's brother, Günther. He was sentenced to death by the Polish underground for crimes against Poles, but the sentence was never carried out. Some members of the resistance movement claimed that the execution was abandoned in order to reward "Fritz" for his accomplishments. Whether it was so, it is not known.
Fryderyk Scherfke (in the center) with his wife and friends.
The Russian face of the Polish community in Warsaw
Interestingly, the communist sports chronicles were silent about the second of the "dyed foxes" of that period, an excellent defender, Yuri Bulanov. The Moscow-born footballer came to Poland in 1919, escaping with his family from the Bolsheviks. He quickly became a key figure in the Polish community in Warsaw, playing over 400 games in it.
As a nineteen-year-old he made his debut for the Polish national team. Later he even became its captain. Although for a long time he did not have formal Polish citizenship (during his debut he used a borrowed passport of Stefan Popiela from Cracovia) , Bulanov very often emphasized his attachment to his new homeland.
Besides football, he was also involved in writing. Together with his brother, he edited the sports biweekly "Olimpiada", which, however, did not conquer the Polish market.
Even before the outbreak of the war, the footballer suffered a serious knee injury, closing his national team output at 22 appearances. At the end of World War II, Yuri, or rather Jerzy Bulanov, was again forced to flee from the Red Army. He made his way to Italy, where fought in the Polish II Corps commanded by Władysław Anders.
Jurij Bułanow awarded after his 400th appearance for Polonia Warszawa.
After the end of the war, he stayed in Great Britain for several years, then went to Argentina, where he died in 1980. Before his death, he managed to release his memoirs, titled "11 Black Shirts."
Both Frederick Scherfke and Yuri Bulanov were true heroes of their time. Nevertheless, the first became synonymous with a traitor. The second - has completely disappeared from the pages of history. It is worth remembering today that before Olisadebe or Obraniak was running in the white and red jersey, we already had foreigners in the national team. And they provided fans with moments of unforgettable joy.