It was his Widzew who won the Polish championship game against Legia in Warsaw, although they were already 0:2 down. It is to him that Widzew owes Tomasz Zimoch’s legendary “Finish it, Mr. Turek”. He led Widzew to the group stage of the Champions League. Since then, they have only achieved this once.
Smuda’s place in the history of our football was secured by unique nights in European cups, championships, Polish Cups and other trophies. But he will also be remembered by fans as one of the most colorful figures in Polish football.
Franciszek Smuda is dead. The essence of Polish football?
Smuda heard that he was “Dyzma”, who owed everything he had achieved to luck and amazing coincidences. Of course, this is not true, although Smuda’s story is at times extraordinary.
Born in the small town of Lubomia, he only ended up studying bricklaying as a vocation because he always preferred to kick the ball. He was not a great football player and, at that time, even the best did not earn a fortune. To earn a living, he went to the USA, where he cleaned oil tanks and played for Polish clubs. There he met the legendary Kazimierz Deyna and there he made one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Together with Deyna, they entrusted their savings to a dishonest agent who promised to multiply them through real estate investments. Smuda lost 200,000 dollars and basically had to start his life all over again. He spent a few more years in Germany, where he began to think about working as a coach, but at that moment it was more likely to return to construction.
In the early 1990s, he was a wallpaper artist at the home of Edward Socha, who later became a football agent. It was Socha who came up with the idea that Smuda would become the coach of Stal Mielec. And suddenly it turned out that in the grey reality of transformation, the methods brought from Germany worked perfectly. Smuda ensured the maintenance of Stal, and soon after he was hired by Widzew, who dreamed of greatness. Smuda’s own employment also occurred under unique circumstances.
President Andrzej Grajewski called in the afternoon and announced to the coach that if he arrived at training tomorrow at 9:45, he would become Widzew’s coach. Smuda finished 9th.
“Franek Smuda works miracles!”
– What do you wish me? I would like to have an idea when choosing the players. So that this patch does not disappoint – Smuda told me and Robert Błoński shortly after taking over the national team. He is probably the only national team coach after 1989 who started with the support of activists, media and fans. The latter chanted “Franek Smuda works miracles!” during the coach’s debut in the national team, which after many years seems very symbolic to me.
On a cold November evening, at the construction site, which at the time was Legia’s stadium, there were only 5,000 spectators, who could watch the team preparing for the European Championships held in Poland and Ukraine. I don’t know if it occurred to anyone that Smuda’s time had passed, just as the time of the dilapidated stadiums had passed, and that the work with the national team would end in defeat at Euro 2012.
“Franz” belonged very much to those earlier times. A way of being (“a coach must be a son of a bitch… With his heart on his sleeve, but also with a big whip in his hand”), but also of work – analytical tools played an increasingly important role in coaching work, and Smuda just wanted “czutka not to” fail “. He used the laptop “like a coffee shop” and “he can judge a football player by the way he climbs the stairs”. The national team managers were the generation of football players who worked with the best coaches in the world (Lewandowski, Krychowiak, Błaszczykowski), surrounded by image experts, and were governed by a naturalist who knew how to say, causing controversy, that “Germany played that in 1974. Now it’s the rest of the world’s team, those dyed foxes.”
Smuda probably became a coach too late. Those who worked with him in the 1990s say good or very good things about him.
Tomasz Łapiński, Widzew defender: He talked about his approach to the game, about not being afraid, not being scared. That he takes responsibility. That he builds the team, decides everything. This is the approach of a coach who gives strength, self-confidence and faith to the team that everything they do is good.
Maciej Szczęsny, Widzew goalkeeper: He was always honest with me, I would follow him anywhere.
The latter heard from Smuda during Widzew’s training camp that he would learn the language in the winter. Szczęsny, who liked to joke about the coach’s mistakes, asked in all seriousness: Polish?
– It was about Spanish… I thought he would surprise me. But he is a great coach, Szczęsny recalled.
Franciszek Smuda died of blood cancer. He turned 76 on June 22.
