Spirydion Jan Albański (4 October 1907 – 30 March 1992), nicknamed "Spirytus" and "Romek", 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

. He played for

Pogoń Lwów LKS Pogoń Lwów is a former Polish professional sports club which was located in Lwów, Lwów Voivodeship (now Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the L ...

and the Poland national team. Albański was born in Lwów (Lviv). He graduated from high school after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when he was forced to move from Lwów to

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

, worked in the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

-mining industry. He was later a civil servant, and also a football coach.

Soccer career

He was part of the

sports club from 1928 to 1939. After the

Soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

captured

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

in late September 1939 (see: Polish September Campaign#Phase 2: Soviet aggression), he represented the newly created teams of Dinamo Lwów and Spartak Lwów. In 1944, as borders of Poland moved westwards (see: Oder-Neisse line), Albański, together with thousands of Lwów's inhabitants, was forced to leave the city. Firstly, he stayed in

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

, where he played for Resovia Rzeszów. Then, from 1945 to 1946, he played a few games for Pogoń Katowice. His most prominent seasons were those spent in Pogoń. From 1928 to 1939, Albański played in 234 games of the Polish top division, which is an absolute record among Polish soccer players. He also represented Poland in 18 games (another record for all interwar goalies), including matches of the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In the 1930s, Albański was among the most popular athletes in Poland. He was very skilled as a goalkeeper, although he was considered too skinny at first (at the beginning of his career he weighed only 50 kilograms, with a height of 176 centimeters, although later he gained approximately 62 kilograms). He was respected by his colleagues, and was the captain of the team since 1936. In the period of 1930–1939, he played in all games, with 174 consecutive matches altogether. Albański died in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

Soccer career

References

See also