Jan Tomaszewski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 9 January 1948) is a Polish former professional

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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in the 1970s. He kept goal for the Poland national teams that came third at the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, where he was named Best Goalkeeper, that won the silver medal at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

, and that competed at the

1978 World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

. He is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the history of Polish football. He was later a football commentator and politician. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0716-0310, Fußball-WM, VR Polen - Brasilien 1-0

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0716-0310, Fußball-WM, VR Polen - Brasilien 1-0

Club career

Tomaszewski grew up in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

where his parents were expelled from

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

after

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 ...

. Tomaszewski's club career was mainly at

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, athletics and in the past ice ...

, having been forbidden by Poland's communist government to play abroad before the age of 30, even after coming to international attention. After the 1978 World Cup, he moved abroad, first to Belgian club Beerschot, and then Hércules in Spain, before retiring in 1984 after two more years with Łódź. In all he won 63 caps for Poland, making him at the time his country's most-capped goalkeeper, although that record was later broken by

Artur Boruc Artur Boruc (; born 20 February 1980) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He began his career in the Polish third division with hometown club Pogoń Siedlce. He joined Ekstraklasa team Legia Warsaw in 1999 a ...

in 2016.

International career

Tomaszewski is best remembered by some for his performance for the Poland national team against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in a qualifying match for the

, which England needed to win. Tomaszewski had been labelled "a clown" by

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engl ...

before the match (the two men however became quite friendly in later years), but had the last laugh as he turned in a man-of-the-match performance repeatedly denying England's attackers; the only goal he conceded being an equalizing

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

from Allan Clarke. Earlier, Jan Domarski had scored for the Poles. Poland drew the game 1–1 and qualified for the finals in

West Germany 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 ...

at the expense of England. In ''"The Story of the World Cup"'',

Brian Glanville Brian Lester Glanville (born 24 September 1931) is an English football writer and novelist. He was described by ''The Times'' as "the doyen of football writers—arguably the finest football writer of his—or any other—generation," and by Ame ...

wrote: "In retrospect, to be eliminated by so fine a side as Poland seems no disgrace, but this is ''a posteriori'' reasoning. I doubt if England could have made so dazzling a contribution as Poland to the tournament, yet it should be remembered that the Poland which beat England and the Poland which took their place were two very different propositions". (p. 191, 2005 edn.)

International

Other achievements

Poland went on to claim third place during a World Cup in which Tomaszewski saved two penalties in two different matches (from

Staffan Tapper Staffan Lars Anders Tapper (born 10 July 1948) is a Swedish former footballer who played as a midfielder for Malmö FF and the Sweden national team. A full international between 1971 and 1978, he won 36 caps for Sweden and played at the 1974 a ...

and

Uli Hoeneß Ulrich "Uli" Hoeneß (, ; born 5 January 1952) is the former president of German football club Bayern Munich and a former footballer for West Germany who played as a forward for club and country. Hoeneß represented Germany at one World Cup and ...

) – the first 'keeper in

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

history to do so. Tomaszewski went on to win a silver medal with Poland at the

, and also played in the

, where Poland disappointed in only managing to get as far as the second group phase. Between 1989–1990, he served as the goalkeepers' coach of the Poland national football team led by Andrzej Strejlau.

Later life

After his playing career he worked as a commentator and sports

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

writing articles in magazines including ''

Przegląd Sportowy ''Przegląd Sportowy'' (, ''Sports Review'') is the oldest and now the only Polish sports daily, founded in 1921 in Kraków. In 1926 it initiated an annual, popular plebiscite for the Polish Sportspersonality of the Year. Its current editor-in-chi ...

''. In 1986, he graduated from the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. In 1991, he published a book titled ''Kulisy reprezentacyjnej piłki'' (Promise Publishing Institute, Łódź). Known for making many controversial statements, he criticised the

Polish Football Association The Polish Football Association ( pl, Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej; PZPN) is the governing body of association football in Poland. It organizes the Polish football leagues (without the Ekstraklasa), the Polish Cup and the Polish national footb ...

(PZPN) on a number of occasions when the organization was run by Marian Dziurowicz and

Michał Listkiewicz Michał Józef Listkiewicz (born May 20, 1953) is a retired Polish football referee, former president of Polish Football Association. He graduated from Warsaw University in 1977. He was a football referee since 1973, officiating internationall ...

. He was elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

at the 2011 election, representing

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

for Law and Justice.

Personal life

He was married three times. He married his third wife, Katarzyna (''née'' Calińska), in 1988. She was a Polish Champion in

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

. Tomaszewski has two daughters with her: Paulina and Małgorzata.

References

External links

* *
Jan Tomaszewski Profile
at goalkeepersaredifferent.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomaszewski, Jan 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Wrocław Polish footballers Poland international footballers Association football goalkeepers Footballers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Poland Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Olympic silver medalists for Poland Śląsk Wrocław players Legia Warsaw players ŁKS Łódź players K. Beerschot V.A.C. players 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1978 FIFA World Cup players La Liga players Hércules CF players Belgian First Division A players Ekstraklasa players Members of the Polish Sejm 2011–2015 Law and Justice politicians Polish sportsperson-politicians Polish football managers Widzew Łódź managers Polish expatriate footballers Polish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium Polish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain