Józef Ignacy Kałuża (11 February 1896 – 11 October 1944) 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 ...

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 career was connected with

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 ...

- with this team in 1921 he won the first, historic Championships of Poland. Altogether, he played 408 games in Cracovia’s jersey, scoring 465 goals. Also, in the years 1921-1928 Kałuża represented Poland in various international games, scoring 7 goals.

Career statistics

Later life

In 1932, after retirement from playing, he became a trainer/manager of the Polish National Team. Directed by him, Poland slowly began to achieve successes on an international scale. In 1936, during

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, the white-red placed 4th (some claim that had

Ernest Wilimowski Ernest Otton Wilimowski (, born Ernst Otto Prandella; 23 June 1916 – 30 August 1997), nicknamed "Ezi", was a footballer who played as a forward. He ranks among the best goalscorers in the history of both the Poland national team and Polish c ...

gone to Berlin, the Poles would have won gold). Two years later, during the

FIFA World Cup 1938 The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, bea ...

, Poland, after a fierce battle, lost to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

5-6. This legendary game is to this day not only regarded as one of the best in the history of Polish football, but also as one of the best in all of World Cup history. Kałuża's last game as coach took place on Sunday 27 August 1939 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 ...

. Poland, after a very good game, beat the then vice-champions of the world,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, 4-2. It was the last game of interwar Poland - on 1 September 1939,

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invaded Poland and

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 ...

started. During the war, Kałuża, as one of the few officials of the Polish Football Federation (PZPN), remained in his homeland, where he died in 1944. In 1946, to commemorate him, PZPN begun organizing Józef Kałuża's Cup, but after a few years this idea was given up. Józef Piłsudski's Cracovia Stadium is located on Kałuża's street.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaluza, Jozef 1896 births 1944 deaths Polish footballers Poland international footballers Olympic footballers of Poland Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Polish football managers Poland national football team managers 1938 FIFA World Cup managers MKS Cracovia (football) players MKS Cracovia managers Legia Warsaw managers People from Przemyśl Sportspeople from Podkarpackie Voivodeship Association football forwards Polish Austro-Hungarians People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria

Club career

Career statistics

Later life

See also

References