Mirosław Okoński (born 8 December 1958 in

Koszalin Koszalin (; ; , ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomera ...

) 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 an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Club career

Okoński started his football career in 1969, in the second division of the Polish league with the team of his hometown, Gwardia Koszalin, which he played to until 1977. He then moved to the first division and

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

. In 1980 he was transferred to

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

with which he won the

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

in 1980 and 1981, while from 1982 to 1986 he returned to Lech Poznań. During his career in Poland he was the top scorer once, in 1983, and twice the runner-up in the league. In 1983 and 1984 he won back-to-back

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

with Lech Poznan. In 1982 and 1984 he also won the Polish Cup. In 1986, he was transferred for around DM 700,000 to German side,

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. He played there for the next two years and won the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

in 1987 and in the same year they finished second in the league. They played in the

1987 DFB-Supercup The 1987 DFB-Supercup was the inaugural DFB-Supercup, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal competitions. The match was played at the Waldstadion in Frankfurt, and contested by leagu ...

losing 2–1 from

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

with Okoński scoring the only goal for his club. During his stay there, he was named Best Foreign Player in Bundesliga. It was the summer of 1988, he moved to the Greek league to play for

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

in a transfer of 220 million drachmas.

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

were also very interested in the footballer, with the latter ending up with

Lajos Détári Lajos László Détári (born 24 April 1963) is a Hungarian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. At the height of his career (1984–1994), he was a well-respected player throughout Europe, winning "Player of the Year" ...

instead. In his first season at the club, he won the league being the team's top scorer and essentially their leader. He scored with a direct free kick against

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

and gave his team the victory in the away derby. On 7 May 1989 in an away match against Olympiacos at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

, he combined 2 times with Karagiozopoulos, assisting him in one of the goal that gave AEK their first championship in 10 years. The following season was also very good winning the

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

on penalties against Panathinaikos. On the contrary in his last season at AEK, affected both by the bad state of the club and by the rupture of his relations with the then coach

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; , ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football manager ...

, he did not performed as expected and left before the end of the season. In 1991 he was transferred to

Korinthos Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

, who had just been promoted to the first division and played for six months, before he leaves the team and thecountry, at 33 years old. In 1992, at the end of his career, he returned to his homeland playing a few games initially with Lech Poznan, later champions, and ending the season with Olimpia Poznań. The following year he returned to Germany and played with SC Concordia von 1907, while in 1994 with FTSV Raspo Elmshorn in the 5th division of the German Championship. He returned to his country in 1995 and joined Lipno Stęszew and a year later his first team Gwardia Koszalin. In the last years of his career and post-retirement he has faced problems related to alcohol and gambling abuse.

International career

From 1977 to 1987, Okoński played 29 times and scored 2 goals for the Poland national team, without participating in any major international tournament.

After football

He currently lives in Poland and has occasionally worked as a player manager and as a newspaper columnist.

Honours

Legia Warsaw *

: 1979–80, 1980–81 ;Lech Poznań *

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 ...

: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1992–93 *Polish Cup: 1981–82, 1983–84 *

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 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

: 1992 Hamburger SV *

: 1986–87 AEK Athens *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

: 1988–89 *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Greek League Cup The Greek League Cup (), officially known as the EPAE Cup () was a Greek association football competition, took place only once, in the 1989–90 season. On 2 June 1990 AEK Athens became the only winner of the institution after winning Olympiaco ...

: 1990 Individual *''

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (magazine), sports magazine in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the wor ...

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 ...

Team of the Season: 1986–87 *Ekstraklasa top scorer: 1982–83 *Ekstraklasa Hall of Fame: 2022 *Lech Poznań All-time XI

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okonski, Miroslaw 1958 births Living people Footballers from Koszalin Men's association football forwards Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers Polish expatriate men's footballers Lech Poznań players Legia Warsaw players Hamburger SV players AEK Athens F.C. players P.A.S. Korinthos players Olimpia Poznań players Gwardia Koszalin players Polish expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Ekstraklasa players Bundesliga players Super League Greece players 20th-century Polish sportsmen