Karol Albert Jakub Kossok (28 January 1907 – 11 March 1946) was a Polish

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 ...

who played as a forward, a.k.a. “the Silesian Giant”, Kossok was the best scorer of the Polish First Division in 1930 (with 24 goals). Karol Kossok

Background Information

Born in Katowice, Kossok’s career started in a German-minority team FC Preussen Kattowitz (later

1. FC Kattowitz 1. FC Kattowitz ( pl, 1. FC Katowice) was an ethnically German football club playing in what was Kattowitz, Silesia Province in Germany (now Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland) and was active during the inter-war period and World War II when ...

), then in 1929 he moved to

Cracovia Cracovia is the Latin name for the Polish city of Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh cen ...

. Also, in 1931 he played for

Pogoń Lwów LKS Pogoń Lwów is a former Polish professional sports club which was located in Lwów, Lwów Voivodeship (now Lviv in Ukraine), and existed from 1904 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. It was the second oldest Polish football club beh ...

- another powerhouse of interwar Polish soccer. After a lone season in

Lwow Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

, he returned to Cracovia, where he played until winning the 1937 championship. He played five games for the Poland national team (including one in 1932 as an unassociated player), scoring three goals (first game on 1 July 1928 in Katowice, 2–1 against Sweden). His tall, heavy frame deceived many defenders. Regarded by many as slow and sluggish, he was a natural killer in the penalty area and a very skilled dribbler. However, did not have enough strength and hardly managed to play his best for the whole 90 minutes. After finishing his career (due to several injuries), he became a coach in Cracovia, also helping

Józef Kałuża Józef Ignacy Kałuża (11 February 1896 – 11 October 1944) was a Polish footballer and later coach, was one of the legends of Polish sports. Club career Kałuża was one of the most experienced forward players of 1920s Poland. His whole ca ...

with managing the national team. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he signed the Volksliste, but his exact whereabouts at that time are not known. Some time in the summer of 1944 he was drafted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. Captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

at the end of the war, he died in

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

POW camp in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in 1946 aged 39.

Sources

History of 1FC Katowice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kossok, Karol 1907 births 1946 deaths Sportspeople from Katowice People from the Province of Silesia Polish footballers MKS Cracovia (football) players Poland international footballers Pogoń Lwów players Ekstraklasa players Polish football managers MKS Cracovia managers Polonia Warsaw managers Association football forwards German Army personnel of World War II German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union German people who died in Soviet detention Volksdeutsche