Zygmunt Sochan (24 December 1909 – 5 February 1998) 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 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 ...

, manager, and member of the

Polish resistance movement in World War II The Polish resistance movement in World War II (''Polski ruch oporu w czasie II wojny światowej''), with the Polish Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance movement in all of occupied Europe, covering both German a ...

Early life

Sochan was born and grew up in

Tomaszów Lubelski Tomaszów Lubelski is a town in south-eastern Poland with 19,365 inhabitants (2017). Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, near Roztocze National Park, it is the capital of Tomaszów Lubelski County. History The town was founded at the end of the ...

. In his youth he played football in the school club Burza Tomaszów Lubelski, which was soon renamed to Znicz Tomaszów Lubelski and then absorbed by the town's leading football club

Tomasovia Tomaszów Lubelski Tomasovia Tomaszów Lubelski is a Polish football club based in Tomaszów Lubelski. Following relegation from III liga, group IV, they will compete in the IV liga in the 2022–23 season, the fifth tier of the Polish football league The Po ...

. He also participated in regional athletic competitions.

Club career

In 1929, he moved to the top division team Warszawianka, based in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. At first he mostly played in its

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. He made his league debut in 1932 in a lost match with

Polonia Warsaw Polonia Warsaw ( pl, Polonia Warszawa, ), founded on 19 November 1911, is the oldest existing Varsovian sports club, best known for its football and basketball teams. It also has track and field, swimming, chess, mountain biking, and contract ...

. Since 1934 he played regularly for Warszawianka, and since 1936 he was the

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. From 1932 to 1939, he made 94 appearances and scored 4 goals in the

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 cl ...

(Polish top division). In 1939, his career was halted due to the outbreak of

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 opposin ...

. After the war, he initially joined Syrena Warsaw, and in 1946-1947, he was a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

at Orzeł Warsaw.

International career

In 1935 Sochan was called up to the Poland national team for a match with

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, however, he did not make an appearance.

World War II

In September 1939, Sochan fought in Poland's defense during the joint German-Soviet invasion that began World War II. Afterwards he was a member of the underground Polish resistance in

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

. Despite occupation, he continued playing football by participating in secret Polish games in Warsaw, representing Warszawianka and Okęcie Warsaw. He was eventually imprisoned by the Germans in the

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-a ...

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, he continued to manage Orzeł Warsaw for many years.

Personal life

His son was Juliusz Sochan, director of the

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

section of AZS AWF Warsaw and the president of the Warsaw Regional Basketball Association. His granddaughter is Aneta Sochan, former Polish basketball player who played for

. His great-grandson is

Jeremy Sochan Jeremy Juliusz Sochan (; born May 20, 2003) is a Polish-American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a member of Poland men's national basketball team. He played colle ...

, basketball player for the Poland national team and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

team

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sochan, Zygmunt 1909 births 1998 deaths Men's association football midfielders Ekstraklasa players People from Tomaszów Lubelski Polish men's footballers Polish football managers Polish resistance members of World War II Stutthof concentration camp survivors Footballers from Lublin Voivodeship