Michael Polywka (6 January 1944 – 12 January 2009) was a German

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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Polywka started his senior career at SC Motor Jena (renamed into

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Obe ...

in 1966) 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 ...

. He defected from his team after an away game in the

1966–67 Intertoto Cup The 1966–67 UEFA Intertoto Cup, Intertoto Cup was won by Eintracht Frankfurt in the final against FK Inter Bratislava, Inter Bratislava, the last final of the tournament in the traditional '1 cup, 1 winner' sense. This was also last season that kn ...

against

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

in Sweden to join

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

. Following a one-year suspension by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, Polywka made his debut in the Bundesliga on 19 August 1967, in a game against

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members of ...

. In total, he played five seasons in the Bundesliga for Braunschweig and

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

. In 1972, he joined Austrian club FC Admira/Wacker Vienna.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Polywka, Michael 1944 births 2009 deaths People from the Province of Upper Silesia Footballers from Gliwice German men's footballers East German men's footballers Men's association football midfielders East Germany men's under-21 international footballers DDR-Oberliga players Bundesliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Eintracht Braunschweig players Hannover 96 players FC Carl Zeiss Jena players FC Admira Wacker Mödling players German expatriate men's footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Austria