Krzysztof Nowak

Krzysztof Nowak ( born September 27, 1975 in Warsaw, Poland, † 26 May 2005 Wolfsburg, Germany ) was a Polish football player.

Career

Club career

Nowak played as a teenager from 1985 for Polish clubs Opal Lubosz, RKS Ursus Warszawa, Sokol Pniewy and GKS Tychy. In 1996 he went to Greece to Panachaiki Patras. In the same year he undertook KP Legia Warszawa, from where he moved to Atlético Paranaense in Brazil. In 1998 he came to VfL Wolfsburg. He played a total of 83 league games as number 10 with the VfL ​​.

National

For the Polish national football team, he completed between 1997 and 1999 ten internationals.

Illness and death

Krzysztof Nowak suffered from late 2000 to the incurable Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ( ALS), a degenerative disease of the motor nervous system, in which the treating physicians for a long time had problems at the beginning, this diagnose with Nowak. Some games he was able to attend for the VfL ​​, but on February 10, 2001 Nowak denied his last Bundesliga game in the 3-1 victory against Hertha Berlin. Only in March 2001 was established the diagnosis. Krzysztof Nowak had to quit after 25 years of his football career.

For years he visited already been ruled out in a wheelchair, the games of his club until he died at the age of 29 years with his family in 2005. He was buried at the Wolfsburg Forest Cemetery. Krzysztof Nowak is survived by his wife and a son and a daughter. The fans of the VfL ​​Wolfsburg he remains in commemoration entitled The Number 10 of Hearts. Founded by him in Wolfsburg on 2 May 2002 Krzysztof Nowak Foundation supports ALS patients and ALS research projects.