Marek Sebastian Leśniak (born 29 February 1964) 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 lea ...

who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, he was successful in his country in the 1980s, and then had a career in Germany which spanned nearly 20 years, broken by a half-year stint in Switzerland. In 1993, he won the Polish Footballer of the Year Award presented by the '' Piłka Nożna'' football weekly.

Career

Leśniak was born in

Goleniów Goleniów (; ) is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland with 22,844 inhabitants as of 2011. It is the capital of Goleniów County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The town's area is , and its geographical position is 53°33'N, 14°49'E. It is ...

. He started his professional career with

Pogoń Szczecin Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Pogoń Szczecin (), is a Polish professional football club based in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national football league s ...

, topping the

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

goal charts in 1986–87, for a final runner-up position. In 1988, he moved abroad, with German side

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

, starting his stint of well by scoring three

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

goals in his first six games. After a couple of solid seasons, Leśniak lost his importance in the side after the arrival of

Ulf Kirsten Ulf Kirsten (born 4 December 1965) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''Der Schwatte'' (dialect for ''Der Schwarze'', 'The Black One'), he is the first player in history to reach a total 100 caps play ...

, eventually leaving in 1992 to

SG Wattenscheid 09 SG Wattenscheid 09 is a Football in Germany, German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club claimed an official founding date of 18 September 1909 as Ballspiel-Verein Wattenscheid out of the me ...

, totalling 25 goals in three seasons. He continued to play in the country until 2006, aged 42, in various levels. From 2002 to 2005, he also acted as

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. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

for SSVg Velbert.

Career statistics

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Poland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Leśniak goal.''

Honours

Poland U20 *

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

third place:

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Individual * Polish Newcomer of the Year: 1983 * ''Piłka Nożna'' Polish Footballer of the Year: 1993 *

top scorer: 1986–87

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesniak, Marek 1964 births Living people People from Goleniów Footballers from West Pomeranian Voivodeship Polish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Ekstraklasa players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players Pogoń Szczecin players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players SG Wattenscheid 09 players TSV 1860 Munich players KFC Uerdingen 05 players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players Fortuna Düsseldorf players SC Preußen Münster players SSVg Velbert players Poland men's international footballers Poland men's youth international footballers Polish expatriate men's footballers Polish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Polish football managers Polish expatriate football managers SSVg Velbert managers SG Wattenscheid 09 managers Polish expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Men's association football player-managers Polish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate football managers in Germany 20th-century Polish sportsmen