Tomasz Radzinski (born 14 December 1973) is a former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a striker and winger. He featured for clubs including

North York Rockets The North York Rockets were a professional soccer team based in North York, Toronto, Ontario that competed in the original Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992), Canadian Soccer League. They were one of four teams to participate in every season of ...

in Canada, Germinal Ekeren,

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 ...

(where he won the national championship twice), Lierse and

Waasland-Beveren Sportkring Beveren (SK Beveren) is a Belgian professional association football club based in Beveren, East Flanders. The club is affiliated with the founded number 4068 and has yellow and blue as its colours. The team was founded in 1936 in H ...

in Belgium, Everton and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

in England and

Skoda Xanthi Xanthi Football Club () is a Greek Association football, football club based in Xanthi, Western Thrace. They play their home matches at Skoda Xanthi Arena Founded in 1967, Xanthi is well set up in terms of their financial support and youth set ...

in Greece. Born in Poland, he represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

at international level having moved there as a teenager, receiving 46 full

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between 1995 and 2009.

Club career

Prior to his moving to Canada, Radziński began his playing career as a youth with

Cuiavia Inowrocław Klub Sportowy Cuiavia Inowrocław is a football club from Inowrocław, Poland. It was founded in 1922. They currently compete in the IV liga Kuyavia-Pomerania, the fifth division of Polish football. Cuiavia reached the second round of the 1989� ...

in his native Poland, and Germany's

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its Association football, football section. The footba ...

. He joined the

of the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; ) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL). It is a non-FIFA league previously ...

in 1990 and remained with the club through the league's demise in 1992 to the club's last year, played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

(NSL), in 1993. He played in the summer of 1994 with the St. Catharines Wolves (of the same league which however was by then renamed to the Canadian National Soccer League). Radziński returned to Europe, joining Germinal Ekeren in Belgium in 1994. From there he eventually signed for Belgian giants

for whom he scored 57 goals in 90 appearances – including five

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

strikes in his last season with the Belgian champions – before moving to Everton for around £4.5 million, the highest transfer fee paid for a Canadian up to that time. At Everton, Radziński scored 25 times in 91 Premiership outings before requesting a transfer, eventually securing a three-year deal with

Fulham F.C. Fulham Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of English football league system, English football. They have played home games at Craven ...

worth £1.75 million. Radzinski wasn't as prolific at Fulham as he was in his previous side, but won over the fans with several crucial goals. Radzinski was released at the end of the 2006–07 season by new manager

Lawrie Sanchez Lawrence Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a football manager and former international footballer for Northern Ireland. The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon aga ...

, totalling 17 goals in 117 appearances. On 28 August 2007, he signed for Greek team

, on a free transfer. One year later, on 30 August 2008, he signed a one-year contract for

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1909 and folded in 2016, when it was replace ...

club Lierse, although his previous contract was valid until 2010. Lierse first had their eye on

Peter Utaka Peter Maduabuchi Utaka (born 12 February 1984) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward for J3 promoted club, Tochigi City FC. He is the younger brother of fellow professional footballer John Utaka. Club career Early caree ...

, but when he transferred to

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, they elected to sign Radzinski. Radzinski had disclosed to the press his belief that members of Skoda Xanthi had been involved in

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing (also known as game fixing, race fixing, throwing, rigging, hippodroming, or more generally sports fixing) is the act of playing or officiating a contest with the intention of achieving a predetermined result, v ...

and was seeking a transfer. On 29 January 2012, Belgian Second Division side

announced they had signed Radzinski on a short-term deal until the end of the 2011–12 season with an option for an additional year.

International career

Radzinski made his debut for the Canada national team in a June 1995 friendly match against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He earned a total of 46 caps, scoring 10 goals making him tied 9th with

Paul Peschisolido Paolo Pasquale Peschisolido (born 25 May 1971) is a Canadian former soccer player and coach. Peschisolido was coach of English League Two club Burton Albion from May 2009 until March 2012. A forward, Peschisolido began his career in the Ca ...

in all-time scoring for Canada. Tomasz Radzinski

In October 1999, Radzinski had been called up to the Canada national team by coach

Holger Osieck Holger Osieck (born 31 August 1948) is a German football manager who last managed the Australia national team. Prior to the Australian role, he most recently managed J. League club Urawa Red Diamonds, where he won the 2007 AFC Champions League ...

, he promised to attend, failed to turn up and later refused to be interviewed about it. The

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (; branded as Canada Soccer) is the governing body for soccer in Canada. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, the federation is a full member of FIFA and governs Canadian soccer at the international, professional, a ...

approached

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

to have Radzinski prevented from playing for Anderlecht as a result. Kevan Pipe, the head of the CSA called Radzinski's actions "an insult to his teammates, his coach and the country". In October 2001, he announced that he'd like to play for Canada again as they had a friendly against European opponents, Malta. He has represented Canada in 19

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

matches. in three

campaigns (

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

) He also holds a Belgian passport through his marriage.

Post-playing career

Radzinski was the technical director of Belgian soccer club Lierse S.K. from 2013 to 2015.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Germinal Ekeren *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 1996–97 Anderlecht *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 1999–2000, 2000–01 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Lierse *

: 2009–10 Individual * Canada Soccer Player of the Year: 1998 * Belgian First Division Top Scorer: 2000–01 *

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2024, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

: 2018

References

External links

* * /

ESPN Soccernet profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radzinski, Tomasz 1973 births Living people Footballers from Poznań Naturalized citizens of Canada Naturalised citizens of Belgium Belgian people of Canadian descent Belgian people of Polish descent Men's association football forwards Soccer people from Ontario Canadian men's soccer players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Polish men's footballers Belgian men's footballers North York Rockets players St. Catharines Roma Wolves players Beerschot A.C. players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Everton F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Xanthi F.C. players Lierse S.K. players S.K. Beveren players Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992) players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Premier League players Super League Greece players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Polish emigrants to Canada Polish expatriate men's footballers Polish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Polish expatriate sportspeople in England Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Belgian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Greece 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Canadian National Soccer League players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England