Robert Warzycha () (born 20 August 1963) is a Polish former professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. Warzycha had a long career in Europe, playing for teams in Poland, Hungary and England with Everton in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. He won two Polish

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 ...

titles and a

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been pl ...

with

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Po ...

. Warzycha was also a regular member of the Poland national football team throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, amassing 47 caps. He moved to the United States in 1996 and subsequently spent seven seasons in Major League Soccer with

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

. He later served as a coach for the team, serving as head coach for five seasons.

Club career

After beginning his career in his native Poland, Warzycha moved to England in March 1991 when

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

signed him for Everton in a £500,000 deal. He started well, scoring twice in his first eight games for Everton, and missing just five league games in the 1991–92. He was one of only thirteen players not from the British Isles to play on the opening weekend of the FA Premier League along with Jan Stejskal,

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Andrei Kanchelskis Andrei Antanasovich Kanchelskis ( uk, Андрій Антанасович Канчельскіс; russian: Андрей Антанасович Канчельскис; born 23 January 1969) is a professional football manager and former player. He ...

Roland Nilsson Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson (born 27 November 1963) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, mak ...

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

Hans Segers Johannes "Hans" Segers (born 30 October 1961) is a Dutch football coach and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper. As a player, he notably spent eight years with Wimbledon where he featured in the Premier League. He also played ...

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, Anders Limpar,

Gunnar Halle Gunnar Halle (born 11 August 1965) is a Norwegian football manager and former player who played as a right back. He is the current assistant coach of Strømmen. Halle is best known for his playing spells at Oldham Athletic and Leeds United, foll ...

Craig Forrest Craig Lorne Forrest (born 20 September 1967) is a Canadian former professional soccer player and sports commentator. As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1985 until 2002, playing his entire career in England. He made Premier League appearance ...

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and Ronnie Rosenthal and was also the first player from mainland Europe to score in the Premier League. His goal was the only one scored by a Polish player in the competition until

Marcin Wasilewski Marcin Ryszard Wasilewski (; born 9 June 1980) is a Polish former professional association football, footballer who played as a centre back. He is best known for winning Premier League with Leicester City FC and getting injured after a horrible ...

scored in January 2015, 22 years later. His goal against Manchester United in a 3–0 win at Old Trafford proved to be his last goal for Everton. He fell out of favour later that season and played just seven times in the 1993–94 season, and was clearly not part of new manager Mike Walker's plans. He went to Hungary at the end of the season to sign for Pécsi Mecsek. A year later, he was sold to

Kispest Honvéd FC Kispest (lit. ''Little Pest'') is the 19th (XIX) district of Budapest, Hungary. It lies south-southeast of the historical Pest city. It was founded in 1871 on rural land as a village at the borderline of Pest, so it was named Kispest. Histo ...

of Hungary. In 1996, he joined

for the Major League Soccer's inaugural year. Warzycha became a staple in the lineup for five seasons, and then a bit player in his final two, as he battled injuries. He retired as the Crew's all-time assist leader with 61 and also scored 19 goals in MLS league play. During his playing days in Columbus, Warzycha was known as "The Polish Rifle," in part because of his accuracy from free kicks. On 25 March 2000 Warzycha scored the first-ever regular-season "Golden Goal" in Major League Soccer history to defeat the San Jose Earthquakes 2–1. He played two more years for Columbus Crew before retiring from playing in 2002 at the age of 39.

International career

For

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 of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, Warzycha was capped 47 times, scoring seven goals between 1987 and 1993.

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, he became an assistant coach with the Crew. After Greg Andrulis was fired in July 2005, Warzycha assumed interim head coaching duty. He went back to assisting after

Sigi Schmid Siegfried "Sigi" Schmid (; March 20, 1953 – December 25, 2018) was a German-American soccer coach who had the most wins in the history of Major League Soccer (MLS). Born in Tübingen, West Germany, he moved to the United States with his fam ...

was hired for the full-time job. After spending several years as Schmid's assistant, Warzycha was promoted to the head coach position at

for the 2009 MLS season, in which he coached the team to the Supporter Shield, awarded for the most points during the regular season. Warzycha signed a multi-year contract extension with Columbus on 1 September 2011 that kept him under contract through the 2013 season. He was released from his contract early, on 2 September 2013.

Personal life

Robert is the father of professional soccer player

Konrad Warzycha Konrad Warzycha (; born February 14, 1989) is a Polish footballer who is currently without a club. Career College and amateur Warzycha was born in Poland, and later lived in England and Hungary, before moving with his family to the United State ...

, who played for

under his father.

Honours

Columbus Crew

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

(1): 2002 *

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

(1): 2008 (Assistant Coach) * MLS Supporters Shield (2): 2008 (Assistant Coach), 2009 (Head Coach)

Górnik Zabrze

(2): 1987, 1988 *

Polish SuperCup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

(1): 1988

Honvéd

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

(1): 1996

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warzycha, Robert 1963 births Living people Polish footballers Polish football managers Górnik Zabrze players Everton F.C. players Premier League players Columbus Crew players Columbus Crew coaches Poland international footballers Polish expatriate footballers People from Pajęczno County Ekstraklasa players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate soccer managers in the United States Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Sportspeople from Łódź Voivodeship Columbus Crew non-playing staff Górnik Zabrze managers Major League Soccer coaches Association football wingers Polish expatriate sportspeople in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Polish expatriate football managers