Włodzimierz Lubański

Włodzimierz Lubański ( born February 28, 1947 in Gliwice - Sośnica ) is a former Polish football player.

In his career he played with Gornik Sośnica, GKS Gliwice, Zabrze Gornik. By the year 1974, he was a Polish -capped player with 75 games and 48 goals scored. In the years 1966-1969 Lubański was behind the other in four seasons top scorer in the Polish league with 23, 18, 24 and 22 hits.

In 1972 he took part in the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, where he was the captain of the Polish team and won the gold medal. With Gornik Zabrze Lubański won seven times the Polish Championship (1963-1967, 1971-1972) and six times the national cup (1965, 1968-1972 ). He was named Player of the Year by the sports newspaper in 1972. In the same year he finished seventh place in the election to the European Footballer of the Year.

1973 became Lubański for probably the most tragic figure in the history of Polish football, as his until then awarded evolving career was rocked by a rude foul in the World Cup qualifier against England and a resulting cruciate ligament. Poland won the match in Chorzow ( Chorzów ) 2-0 and Lubański was even one of the scorers. After his time rated as epic 1-1 draw at Wembley Poland turned on the title holder of 1966 and thus qualified sensational for the Football World Cup 1974 in Germany, where the Polish team had only Italy and Argentina behind, Sweden and Yugoslavia ausschaltete, but in a rainy game against the hosts missed the final. In the match for third place they prevailed against defending champions Brazil.

Although lubański later managed a comeback, but never reached the previous level. Only in 1977, he returned to the Polish national football team and participated in the World Cup 1978. In the qualifier against Denmark ( Chorzów 1977) he renounced a certain goal in order not to jeopardize the Danish goalkeeper. For this he was rewarded with the Fair Play Award by UNESCO. He played at this time already at KSC Lokeren in Belgium, where he (2008) has worked as an assistant coach today.

Włodzimierz Lubański was appointed both in Europe as well as in the World XI. Lubański may well be counted among the best players of Polish football with players such as Zbigniew Boniek, Jerzy Gorgoń, Grzegorz Lato, Ernst Willimowski, the official century Kazimierz Deyna footballer and goalkeeper Tomaszewski January.

Achievements

• Polish Champion (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1972 )
• Polish Cup winner (1965, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972)
• Polish scorer (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969)
• Olympic gold medal (1972 )
• FIFA World Cup (1978 )