At the recent Olympic Games, the results of the Polish team reached the bottom. We didn't show off at Euro either. In fact, the last successful period in Polish sport was in the years of ... the Polish People's Republic. Did the communists know some magical way of educating the masters? Let's check it out with one of the sports heroes of the 1980s.
Włodzimierz Smolarek was Widzew's best league scorer (61 goals), a multiple captain of the Polish National Team and a member of the team that took 3rd place at the 1982 World Cup. However, he started very modestly and the state really had very, very little to do with his success.
His adventure with the ball began when he was about ten years old. It was then that he started regular training in Włókniarz - a regional club from Aleksandrów Łódzki. The conditions were not even modest, but downright Spartan . In Smolarek's biography - written in the first person, like memories, but by a footballer friend Jacek Perzyński and not himself - we can read: We trained three or four times a week and had similar problems as most clubs in Poland. (...) One could only dream of a sports hall . Therefore, we trained most often in schools in Aleksandrów. Most often in Primary School No. 3 (p. 19). Hygiene was not taken care of, nor the minimum comfort of the players - for example was completely out of the question in warm water after training. Smolarek also drew attention to a problem that was particularly noticeable in the event of any injuries: Then I encountered what will accompany me throughout my career in Poland - the lack of sports medicine, even in the most modest edition . The clubs did not have doctors (p. 19). The pitches also left a lot to be desired - young footballers considered the opportunity to play on an even surface, without puddles, holes and bumps, to be a real luxury .
Smolarek at the World Cup in Spain in 1982.
The coaches were changing like a kaleidoscope - several years of experience in the club was rare. The trainings themselves were in no way adapted to the needs of more ambitious players. Smolar recalled that he was able to keep in shape only by asking his colleagues to participate in private exercises - ones in which he trained and they played the role of extras (p. 22). In addition, the future champion could by no means - like today's athletes - devote himself only to sports.
The article is based on the book "Smolar. A footballer with character ”by Jacek Perzyński (Erica 2012).
He went to school in Zgierz, where he learned confectionery, and then became a journeyman in a pastry shop on the market square of Aleksandrów Łódzki, with the masters Antczak and Balcer. Smolarek's father decided about such a career - although he was a passionate footballer himself, he did not believe that his son had the makings of a professional. "Confectioner is a good trade," he said, and did not want to listen to any protests. Smolarek later recalled to Perzyński: This is my profession, though I did not like cookies and other sweets very much. Back then, while working in a confectionery, I chafed my hands. Anyway, everyone who used to work in a pastry shop has chafing hands. This almost always happens when you pull the donuts through a strainer (p. 15).
The future master spent almost three years in the confectionery. The boss kept him short and raised him strictly. Hearing that the boy would rather spend his time on football, he laughed: "You will be a footballer ?! Sooner a cactus will grow in my hand ” .
And yet Smolarek became a footballer. At the same time, in the training system of that time, he actually only praised conscientious writing down exercise plans and organizing joint training of seniors with juniors. Who, then, was responsible for the great success of the footballer? Certainly not the state, so perhaps its own innate talent. And the father, who encouraged him to dig since he was a child. There was no talent shop in the People's Republic of Poland. At least not for players.
Source:
- Jacek Perzyński, Smolar. A footballer with character , Erica Publishing Institute 2012.