The Polish goalkeeper hero of Wembley. Clough called him a clown: «In Poland there was little training, food was rationed. It was earned abroad
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY of Mary Sibierski
(FILES) A file picture taken onSeptember 1, 2013, shows Law and Justice (PiS) party deputy and former football goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski during a warm up before charity football match ‘Politicians vs TVN Stars’ in Warsaw, Poland. Jan Tomaszewski is a legendary Polish goalkeeper, who in World Cup qualifying match against England on 17 October 1973, ‘stopped the England’. Poland drew the game 1ñ1 and qualified for the finals in West Germany at the expense of England. AFP PHOTO / PAP/ LESZEK SZYMANSKI / POLAND OUT/ EASTNEWS OUT (Photo by Leszek Szymanski / PAP / AFP)
Jan Tomaszewski will be remembered by football fans as the ‘man who stopped England’. Two weeks ago the former Polish goalkeeper turned 75: «I don’t mind celebrating with Tizio and Caio. I just wish the younger ones would listen more. That would be the best gift.”
Tomaszewski was part of that legendary team capable of taking bronze at the 1974 World Cup after beating a Brazil already without Pele in West Germany. During that event the goalkeeper saved two penalties, penalty roulette excluded. A record then equaled by the American Brad Friedel at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002, and more recently, by Tomaszewski’s compatriot, Wojciech “Wojtek” Szczesny, in Qatar.
The more you talk to the volcanic Tomaszewski, the more surprising is his ability to show off humility, without sounding like a false modesty: «There are no merits of the goalkeeper. There are only the demerits of those who have kicked a penalty. This speech is even more true in today’s football. From the spot the ball travels towards goal 50 kilometers per hour faster than what was used in my day. I was lucky enough to be in the right place and at the right time twice. It wasn’t just me at Wembley. There were twelve of us. The eleven on the pitch plus coach Kazimierz Górski».
It lights up when we talk about the feats of the Juventus goalkeeper in Qatar. «Wojtek is a tough guy. I hoped with all my heart that he could beat this record we share by saving three penalties during the same edition of the World Cup. I am saddened but not surprised given how things have turned out. Unfortunately, with such a game one could not hope to go on. Michniewicz has decided to always place the bus in front of our door. Only in the match against France did we see a little something».
Tomaszewski is a raging river. «Lewandowski, Zieliński, Szczesny, when will we see a generation of such strong players again? Almost all the players of our national team play in leagues of a certain level and are used to playing full-court in their clubs. We did harakiri by being crushed in our half of the pitch regardless of the opponent we were facing». When talking about today’s Polish football talents, the Wembley veteran also mentions the name of Bartosz Bereszyński who recently moved on loan to Napoli from Sampdoria during this transfer window. On juniper that would have led to the non-renewal of Michniewicz after the World Cup he prefers to postpone, not without sparing a few more jabs at the former Poland coach: «I said it and I want to repeat it also abroad: the day when Michniewicz became the national coach was a black page. Anyone going to hold such an important position must be immaculate. Michniewicz was one of the suspects during the Calciopoli of the 2000s in Poland when he coached Lech Poznań. Yet he never made public the content of his deposition at the Wroclaw Public Prosecutor’s Office. I don’t understand what he has to hide. The way he made our team play in Qatar speaks for itself. I’m not at all surprised that the Polish Football Federation has decided not to continue with him.”
While the total coach for the national team goes crazy, Tomaszewski seems to have clear ideas: «I’m not here to name names. A medium-sized foreign coach with international experience, supported by a Polish deputy who knows the environment and who can take his place after a few years: I can’t imagine a better profile».
But let’s go back to the seventies when Tomaszewski was there to defend the posts of his national team. You had to get there first at the World Cup. On 17 October 1973, Poland would only need a draw to qualify. England coached by Alf Ramsey on sunset avenue was instead forced to win. The match ended with the result of 1-1 with Tomaszewski able to save almost everything during the siege of the hosts. That day, to the delight of Górski and his men, the good morning was not seen since morning. In the third minute of the game Tomaszewski adjusts the ball with his hands in his area to relaunch it with his feet but he doesn’t notice the onrushing Clarke. In the clash with the Leeds United striker to get the ball back, the Polish goalkeeper breaks a finger on his hand: «I never thought of giving up at that moment. That opening incident gave me a jolt. Some of my teammates believe that he underwent a real transformation on the pitch after the impact with Clark and ended up saving our team on many occasions ».
Six months later Ramsey, the only manager capable of giving his country a world title, would receive the sack from the English Football Association. Meanwhile, the process of “mythologizing” the goalkeeper who was born in Wroclaw in 1948 had already begun at home. Yes, because despite the basic Catholicism of the inhabitants of the country on the Vistula, at the time of the People’s Republic of Poland – firmly in the Soviet orbit but secular only on paper – he did not sanctify or beatify himself. At most, one could receive sporting honors from the authorities. In the countries of the Warsaw bloc at the time of the “military transfer market” there was no professional sport. Only at the end of their careers were some stars granted a pass to earn some western currency in a foreign league. «At the time in the Polish championship, even in the top flight, it happened to train two or three times a week and only close to a match. It’s incredible how with these premises Poland managed to finish third in the World Cup twice. Abroad, I was paid for services in dollars every week. This allowed him to keep his concentration high and always be motivated».
Solidarnosc election campaign poster, reading “Vote Solidarity – Lech Walesa” adorns tram in Warsaw on May 13, 1989. (Photo by DRUSZCZ WOJTEIC / AFP)
At Wembley he chose to stay on the field after the blow to the hand becoming a hero in his homeland. Brian Clough, one of the many to stamp in England to take Ramsey’s place, would have called him a clown after the game in a television living room: «There were many English coaches who wanted to show off after the defeat against us. Clough was one of them. We met again a few years later during an award ceremony of the English Football Association which awarded the title of best goalkeeper in the Premier League. We said to ourselves then that sport must unite. The rest must remain water under the bridge”.
At Wembley he chose to stay on the pitch but in other important matches he didn’t hesitate to be replaced. It happened on the occasion of the 1976 Montreal Games in the final between Poland and East Germany, played on a pitch devastated the previous day by a horse race, and then lost 3-1 by the national team coached by Górski: «After 14 minutes we were already below two networks. I didn’t feel like continuing. Not out of cowardice. You have to find the courage to take a step back when you realize you can’t give your best even from a mental point of view. It is something unthinkable in football now. A Lewandowski and a Messi would never be replaced in such a situation.”
In Warsaw and its surroundings in those years people queued up for flour, and only sometimes for meat, with a ration card in their pocket: «Even the diet of the “Sunday footballers” left something to be desired. But the authorities did not miss anything at the table for the sportsmen called to represent their country abroad”. Tomaszewski played a few seasons in Antwerp for Beerschot before moving to Hercules Alicante. “I was in Spain with my wife and first daughter when martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981. I found out what had happened from a local journalist. For several months I have not heard from relatives and friends. Terrible things happened during that time. The repression by General Jaruzelski’s military junta has claimed several lives. Yet perhaps in this way we managed to avoid the worst, avoiding the risk of finding ourselves with Soviet tanks on our doorstep as happened in Hungary and Czechoslovakia», recalls the former goalkeeper.
Tomaszewski donated some of the memorabilia accumulated over the years to one of his daughters, Małgorzata, who became a leading journalist on Polish public television (TVP), close to the populist right-wing government of Law and Justice (PiS). Tomaszewski himself in the last decade would have attempted an adventure in politics first in the ranks of the Pis, and later, in those of the Civic Platform (Po), the liberal formation of the former president of the European Council Donald Tusk. It’s true, sometimes we become politicians, take the case of Pele. Tomaszewski’s political parable lasted five years but meanwhile over the years he has become a successful commentator in his country and almost always with original thinking. His remaining trophies he exhibited, together with his collection of strictly sealed bottles of spirits from all over the world, in a separate room of his apartment in Lódź, his adopted city, where he now lives alone. Tomaszewski keeps mentioning Górski’s name: «He was the best in our country. Before him, Polish coaches didn’t think that players could manage themselves. Our wives stayed in the hotel with us during the World Cup. Górski even let us drink a couple of beers after a match. But if you screwed up once with him, it was over.” Despite his explosive personality, Tomaszewski has always been moderate in manners. He run and bike every day. He drinks wine once a day and diluted with water like the ancient Greeks: «Sometimes I allow myself a teaspoon of brandy to digest better, that’s all». Could this also be one of the secrets that over time has made him a lucid and acute debater about sporting events?
