Wladyslaw Szczepaniak

Władysław Szczepaniak (born May 19, 1910 in Warsaw , † May 6, 1979 ibid) was a Polish football player .

Defender Władysław Szczepaniak played his entire career for Polonia Warsaw . The 34-time Polish international was captain of his club and the national team. He made his debut in the Polish league in 1928 as a striker, but was retrained as a defender in the following years. His active career ended in 1947. As captain of the national team, he led Poland to fourth place at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and to the 1938 World Cup in France . At the World Cup in France, Poland played in a knockout system against Brazil and lost 5-6. The game is still considered to be one of the best in World Cup history and in Polish football.

He was also the team captain in two international matches against the DFB-Elf : 1936 in Berlin (1: 1) and 1938 in Chemnitz (1: 4); in the second game his direct opponent Helmut Schön scored a goal. As a key player on the Polish side, “ Der Kicker ” dedicated a friendly caricature to him in its report on the game alongside Ernst Willimowski .

During World War II, Szczepaniak took part in the underground games of the Warsaw City Championship. He ran the risk of arrest by the Gestapo because the German occupiers had banned the Poles from all organized sport. After the war, underground football was seen as a patriotic act, and for this reason Szczepaniak was again able to lead his team as captain at Poland's first international match after the Second World War on June 11, 1947 in Oslo.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Kicker , September 20, 1938, p. 3.
2. ↑ Thomas Urban : Black eagles, white eagles. German and Polish footballers at the heart of politics. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89533-775-8 , pp. 78–79.
3. ^ Mieczysław Szymkowiak, Warszawski sport w podziemiu (2). Za cenę życia. In: Stolica , December 6, 1959, p. 20

Web links

• Władysław Szczepaniak in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )