Franciszek Smuda: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 17:30, 20 October 2008
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Personal information | |||
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Position(s) | Defender, Stopper |
Franciszek Smuda (born 22 June 1948 in Lubomia) is a former Polish footballer and a current coach. He is considered to be one of the most talented managers in Poland currently. He first played at Unia Raciborz and later at Odra Wodzislaw Slaski. Since May 17th 2006, Smuda is the manager of Lech Poznan.
Playing career
As a player, he played as a defender mostly. He began his career at Unia Racibórz. Later, he was a player of Odra Wodzislaw and Ruch Chorzow. He got his debut in the Ekstrlasa playing for Stal Mielec during the 1970/1971 season. He also played for Piast Gliwice, and also had a short spell at Wisla Garfield in the USA and also participated in the NASL Hartford Bi-Centennials . In 1975 he returned to Poland to play for Legia Warsaw. In 1978 he returned to the USA again to play for 3 other NASL clubs. He finished his career as a player in Germany soon after becoming a manager.
Coaching career
He began his coaching career successfully in the lower leagues in Germany. During the late 1980s, he was appointed as a managerin Turkey. He coached Altay Izmir and Konyaspor for a total of 4 years. In 1993, Smuda returned to Poland to help save Stal Mielec from relegation. During the seasons in Mielec, he managed to maintain the team in the Ekstraklasa.
Widzew Łódź
In May 1995 he was appointed as the manager of Widzew Lodz and finished in 2nd place behind Legia Warsaw in the 1994/1995 season. The following season Smuda managed to not lose a single league game. The 1995/1996 season was another successful one with Widzew's Marek Koniarek scoring the most goals in the league at 29. Widzew qualified for the Champions League competition for the 1996/1997 season. Smuda managed the team to eliminate the Danish champions, Brøndby IF. Widzew were drawn into a difficult group containing Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Steaua Bucharest. Widzew finished the group in 3rd place. The team from Lodz were able to repeat their feat of winning the Polish Ekstraklasa again. The next season was not as promising as the Widzew management sold some of their key players and were eliminated in the qualifying phases of the Champions League. Widzew finished in the 4th place that year and were unable to qualify for any European competitions. Shortly after, Smuda moved to Wisla Krakow where he had much success. He returned to Widzew on short spells in 2002, 2003 and 2004 during Widzew's crisis.
Wisła Kraków
After gaining popularity and value, Smuda was appointed as the manager of Wisla Krakow at the end of the 1997/1998 season. His goal was to build a team that would be not only be successful in Poland but also in European cups. Smuda won the Polish League the following season however unfortunately Wisla Krakow was ejected from European tournaments due to a fan throwing a knife at Dino Baggio during a UEFA Cup match against Parma F.C.. In September 1999, Smuda was dismissed as manager of Wisla for losing one single game. He was hired as manager again on June 2001 after Wisla lost to Legia Warsaw. He failed to defeat FC Barcelona in the 3rd Qualifying Phase of the Champions League. After losing to Polonia Warsaw and Legia Warsaw in march 2002, he was replaced by Henryk Kasperczak.
Other Clubs
Smuda also managed Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski in Poland as well as the Cypriot team Omonia. He was also a potential candidate for the head coach position of the national football team of Gabon. Since 2004 he has been coaching in the Polish Ekstraklasa. He helped keep Odra Wodzislaw from being relegated. A year later he finished in 3rd place with Zaglebie Lubin earning a spot in the UEFA Cup for the next season. In may 2006 he was hired as the manager of the new merger of Lech Poznan and Amica Wronki.
Polish National Football Team
Franciszek Smuda has been enquired as a candidate multiple times for the National side. After the resignation of Antoni Piechniczek in 1997 he was linked as the next manager. However Janusz Wójcik received the position. In the fall of 1999 he was again linked as being the next manager after the resignation of Janusz Wojcik. He was unable to take the position at the time because of his binding contract with Legia Warsaw and inturn Jerzy Engel was hired. His name was brought up again as a replacement for Pawel Janas after the poor results of the national team in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Achievements
- Articles lacking sources from August 2008
- 1948 births
- Living people
- Polish footballers
- Polish football managers
- Football managers in Cyprus
- AC Omonia managers
- Legia Warszawa players
- Stal Mielec players
- Greuther Fürth players
- San Jose Eartkquakes players
- Expatriate footballers in Germany
- Polish expatriate footballers