Théodore Szkudlapski

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Théodore Szkudlapski (born November 17, 1935 in Avion , † April 7, 2006 in Lens ), often referred to as Théo in printed works , was a French football player . He belonged to the large group of second and third generation immigrants of Polish origin, who until the early 1960s made up a good 10% of all professional footballers in France's top division.

Club career

Théodore Szkudlapski, whose last name the media had spelling and pronunciation problems for French football fans and officials alike, came from one of the numerous Polish families in the northern French coalfield between Lens and Béthune . As a 15-year-old he was already working underground and had been playing football in his free time at the local “ buddy club ” CS Avion since he was a boy ; for this he had "sometimes had to skip the catechism classes held in Polish ". At seventeen and a half he signed a professional contract with neighboring Racing Lens . At first he was still working in his pit 6 in Avion, but no longer had to drive in there, but was used in a workshop for days and was given free time for every training session - the club president was also a senior employee of the mining company and the club's office was in theirs Administration building. This had an impact not only for him and not only positive, as Szkudlapski recalled in retrospect:

“Being with Lens was a luxury. You yourself had your peace and quiet and your parents could also take it easy in the mine. [... But in a dispute about my contract] President Michaux blackmailed me by saying that I should remember that my father, brother and brother-in-law also worked in the mine. "

At Racing, the left runner soon grew into the first division team and developed alongside Xercès Louis , Maryan Wisnieski , Michel Stievenard and others to become the game designer of the team, which played for the title twice every year between 1954/55 and 1956/57 Runner-up was (1956 behind OGC Nice , 1957 behind AS Saint-Étienne ) and in the national cup of the 1957/58 season in the semi-finals only narrowly failed at the eventual winner Stade Reims . Szkudlapski was also quite dangerous and scored 20 goals in his 85 point games for the northern French.

He was also appointed to the national military team during his military service . In 1958 he moved to the league competitor Stade Rennes UC - also in order to evade the particularly close-knit social control in Lens by neighbors, club fans, clubs and employers . The Bretons ended the following two seasons only in midfield, although Szkudlapski was able to increase his hit rate there, and his team was eliminated in the 1959 semi-finals of the Cup .

Then in 1960 the newly crowned cup winner AS Monaco brought him to the Mediterranean coast , where he brought his qualities to full development. Among them was the ability "to play precise passes over 40 meters with his 'magic left foot', thereby undermining an opposing defense by changing flanks"; he was “not the fastest”, but had a “very hard and precise shot ” and was “able to dribble out four opponents in a confined space ”. In addition, the "exceptional footballer [...] had a strong sense of surprising changes in tempo". In doing so, he refuted - like Raymond Kopaszewski in particular  - the prevailing cliché in the media of the "Poles who know neither pain nor giving up [and] only stand out because of their physical robustness". In his first year he won the Division 1 championship with Monaco and the Coupe Charles Drago . In 1962, coach Lucien Leduc's players were unable to defend the title, but twelve months later they even managed to double the league championship and the national cup . In addition, at the end of the season he was in the team that won the then legendary Trofeo Teresa Herrera in the final against CR Vasco da Gama . Even with the Monegasques sponn Théo Szkudlapski, together with Michel Hidalgo and Henri Biancheri , the threads in the game design was provider to the offensive series Cossou - Djibrill - Douis - Carlier and achieved even still regularly gates. This also applied to Monaco's appearances in the European Champions Cup , although these only consisted of two games each against the Glasgow Rangers ( 1961/62 ), AEK Athens and Inter Milan (both 1963/64 ). Szkudlapski played five of these matches and also scored two goals - both with a penalty kick against Athens and Milan.

In 1964 AS Monaco was runner-up; then, however, followed three years, which the team only finished between 12th and 14th place. In 1967 the club gave Théo to the second division SO Montpellier ; he had played 215 first division games for the red-whites alone and scored 34 goals. When he moved from SO Montpellier to Stade Brest and how long he played there - Montpellier went bankrupt in 1969, Brest rose from the third to the second division in 1970 - cannot be determined at the moment. In the 1970s he also worked again at AS Monaco and worked in the club's youth training center. Then Théo returned to his region of origin, worked for a long time as a groundskeeper in Avion and lived in Lens until his death.

Stations

  • Club Sportif Avionnais (until 1953)
  • Racing Club de Lens (1953-1958)
  • Stade Rennais Université Club (1958–1960)
  • Association Sportive de Monaco (1960–1967)
  • Stade Olympique Montpelliérain (1967– ?, in D2)
  • Stade Brestois (? -?)

In the national team

“Théo” had already passed through the French youth team , the amateur national team and the B-Elf at a young age ; In addition, he had become world champion with the national military team at the CISM World Cup in 1957 and had also scored a goal there in the decisive game against hosts Argentina. Nevertheless, it was not until April 1962 before he was allowed to debut for France A on the occasion of a friendly against Poland ; while he was placed on the half-left at the side of Raymond Kopa. It wasn't until 17 months later, this time as the left runner, that he made his second appearance for the Bleus ; this qualifying game for the European Championship finals in Spain , which he lost 1-0 to Bulgaria in Sofia, was also his last international match.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the journalist and author Denis Chaumier judged this “non-career” that Théodore Szkudlapski “with his playful skills and handling qualities simply did not fit into the imagination of national team sélectionneur Georges Verriest ” - which for him was “one of the most serious fallacy of French football ”is.

Palmarès

  • French champion: 1961, 1963 (and runner-up in 1956, 1957, 1964)
  • French cup winner: 1963
  • Coupe Drago won: 1961
  • Trofeo Teresa Herrera won: 1963
  • 2 international caps, no goal
  • 375 games and 77 hits in Division 1
  • Military World Champion: 1957
  • Admission to the “All Time Dream Team” of AS Monaco

literature

  • Jean Cornu: Les grandes equipes françaises de football. Famot, Genève 1978
  • Marion Fontaine: Le Racing Club de Lens et les "Gueules Noires". Essai d'histoire sociale. Les Indes savantes, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-84654-248-7
  • Paul Hurseau / Jacques Verhaeghe: Les immortels du football nordiste. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2003, ISBN 2-84253-867-6
  • Alfred Wahl / Pierre Lanfranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-0123-5098-4

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ Wahl / Lanfranchi, p. 134ff.
  2. ↑ This also applies more recently: for example Wahl / Lanfranchi (1995), Hurseau / Verhaeghe (2003) and Chaumier (2004) Skudlapski , in Grégory Frackowiak: Théodore Szkludlaspki dit 'Théo'. Essai de biography d'un “galibot footballeur”. , Revue du Nord 355 (2004), and in Fontaine (2010) it is called Szkludlaspki (underlining by the author of this article).
  3. ↑ Fontaine, p. 156, points out that this was not only true for “Théo” and not only after the Second World War : Maryan Jedrzejczak became “Marresh”, Stephan Dembicki became “Stanis”, François Ludwikowski became “Ludo” and Kazimierz Kosakiewicz to "Kosa" or "Koza". The last names of Raymond Kopaszewski and Maryan Wisniewski were shortened to "Kopa" and "Wisnieski" respectively.
  4. ^ Fontaine, p. 154
  5. ^ Fontaine, p. 158
  6. ↑ Fontaine, pp. 155 and 160
  7. Jump up and hit numbers, also at his later clubs, according to Stéphane Boisson / Raoul Vian: Il était une fois le Championnat de France de Football. Tous les joueurs de la première division de 1948/49 à 2003/04. Neofoot, Saint-Thibault o. J.
  8. ^ Fontaine, p. 168
  9. ↑ a b Hurseau / Verhaeghe, p. 133
  10. ↑ Cornu, p. 135
  11. ↑ Wahl / Lanfranchi, p. 135
  12. ↑ Listings and dates of the 1963 finals at rsssf.com
  13. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: 50 ans de Coupes d'Europe. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2005, ISBN 2-951-96059-X , p. 282; Szkudlapski's hit from Matthias Weinrich: The European Cup. 1955 to 1974. AGON, Kassel o. J. [2007], ISBN 978-3-89784-252-6 , pp. 153f.
  14. ↑ Cornu, p. 137
  15. ↑ a b Denis Chaumier: Les Bleus. Tous les joueurs de l'équipe de France de 1904 à nos jours. Larousse, o. O. 2004, ISBN 2-03-505420-6 , p. 290
  16. ^ Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003², ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1 , p. 275
  17. ↑ Didier Braun: "June 14, 1957 - l'armée défile à Buenos Aires" in France Football of July 9, 2013, p. 56
  18. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004, ISBN 2-951-96053-0 , p. 322/323
  19. ↑ This group of 18 former football players was put together on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the ASM 2014 - see AS Monaco Dream Team on asmonaco.com.
personal data
SURNAME Szkudlapski, Théodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Théo; Skudlapski, Théodore; Szkludlaspki, Théodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Avion
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 2006
Place of death Lens