Euzebiusz "Ebi" Smolarek (; born 9 January 1981) is a Polish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who is youth manager at Dutch club Feyenoord. He played primarily as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

or winger, representing clubs in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England, Greece, Poland, and Qatar. Smolarek played 47 times for the Polish national football team, scoring 19 officials goals, the joint-tenth most in the nation's history. He was part of the Polish squads at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and UEFA Euro 2008.

Club career

Born in Łódź, Smolarek grew up in the Netherlands, where his father, Włodzimierz Smolarek, played in the Eredivisie and later worked as a coach. Smolarek went through the Feyenoord youth system and made it all the way to the first team. On 24 August 2007, Smolarek signed with Racing de Santander for a reported €4.8 million. Polonia Warszawa vs Jagiellonia Białystok 05-2011 3

Polonia Warszawa vs Jagiellonia Białystok 05-2011 3

On 29 August 2008, Racing loaned Smolarek to

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

for the season, with a view to signing him permanently. Smolarek's debut for his new club came as the team lost 3–1 to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 20 September 2008. On 3 January 2009, Smolarek scored his first, and only, goal for Bolton in the FA Cup 3rd Round match away to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

but at the end of the season the club decided not to make his loan permanent. On 10 August 2009 he was released by Racing. Despite some interest from Bundesliga clubs at the start of the 2009–10 season, Smolarek signed on 14 December 2009 with Kavala until 30 June 2012. On 25 July 2010, he and the club agreed to cancel his contract by mutual consent. He signed a two-year contract with Polonia Warsaw on 27 July 2010. On 29 July 2011, Smolarek agreed to cancel his contract with Polonia due to his financial expectations. Smolarek also played for Ekstraklasa side Jagiellonia Białystok.

International career

Poland & US friendly soccer match in Kaiserslautern 2006-03-01

Polish international The Polish International in badminton is an international open held in Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area ...

since 2002, Smolarek was selected for the

but failed to score any goals. He was Poland's (and group A's) top scorer in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying scoring nine goals, beating Cristiano Ronaldo. Smolarek scored a hat-trick against Kazakhstan in Warsaw. He played all of the nation's matches in Switzerland and Austria, as Poland exited in the group stages. In a memorable feat, he was the first Pole to score a goal against Portugal in 20 years, the previous one being his father. Impressively, he scored both goals in a 2–1 win in a Euro 2008-qualifying match. On 1 April 2009, Smolarek scored four goals against San Marino. This made him top goal scorer for group three and tied him with Belgium's

Wesley Sonck Wesley Sonck (born 9 August 1978) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who manages the Belgium U19 national team. He played as a striker for Molenbeek, Germinal Ekeren, Germinal Beerschot, Genk, Ajax, Borussia Mönch ...

for second highest goal scorer for the European Zone of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification.

Personal life

Smolarek is the son of another Polish international, Włodzimierz Smolarek. He was named after Portuguese footballer Eusébio. With his Dutch fiancée Thirza van Giessen he has a son (b. 27 April 2010), named Mees (for some time it was believed he named him Messi after Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi; the actual name Mees is an old Dutch name, and does not have anything to do with Messi).

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours

Club

Feyenoord * UEFA Cup: 2001–02

Individual

* Polish Footballer of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smolarek, Euzebiusz Living people 1981 births Footballers from Łódź Polish emigrants to the Netherlands Association football forwards Association football midfielders Association football wingers Polish footballers Feyenoord players Borussia Dortmund players Racing de Santander players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Kavala F.C. players Polonia Warsaw players Al-Khor SC players ADO Den Haag players Jagiellonia Białystok players UEFA Cup winning players Eredivisie players Bundesliga players La Liga players Premier League players Super League Greece players Ekstraklasa players Qatar Stars League players Poland international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Doping cases in association football Polish sportspeople in doping cases Polish expatriate footballers Polish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Polish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Polish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate footballers in Qatar Polish football managers Polish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands