Grzegorz Lato

On April 8, 1950 was born in Malbork , a city of the Polish region of Żuławy , a child who was named Grzegorz Bolesław Lato .At the age of twelve he entered the Stal Mielec and his debut with the first team he was sixteen. Seven years later , in 1973 , this modest team, led by a young Lato , who was the top scorer with thirteen goals, won the Ekstraklasa .

In 1975, he was again the top scorer with 19 goals , although his club could not win the title .Poland, which had been defeated by Wales in Cardiff during qualifying for the 1974 World Cup is going to play their World Cup ticket nothing more and nothing less than against Alf Ramsey 's England at Wembley. The always controversial statements coach Brian Clough saying that Lato was a bald marathon , that , more than a good footballer , Gorgoń center seemed a bad fighter, and the goalkeeper Tomaszewski was a circus clown, spurred Poles, not entered the British game technician.England needed victory. In Poland it was enough to not lose. The match was a constant siege of
England. Amid the burden ten minutes into the second half , Lato recovered a ball , the band toured and gave a pass to Domarski that , upon entering the area, and fired it past Peter Shilton . England continued to attack relentlessly . 63 minutes , English Alan Clarke masterfully threw a penalty against Tomaszewski it past that .Before the meeting, all presaged that Poland would fit a cruel thrashing , but the end result was a tie. Jan Tomaszewski , with gloves painter who had given his father , it was absolutely stopped everything ( except the penalty ) , and the invaluable work of their colleagues had qualified to Poland for the finals of the World Cup that was to hold eight months later in West Germany.In Germany 74, Poland finished third, and Brian Clough , who had just signed for Leeds United, had to watch as Lato - top scorer with seven goals , and Tomaszewski were included in the dream team of the tournament.In the 1975-1976 season, the Stal Mielec , which had been eliminated by the Hamburg quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup , again won the league.Lato , who was Olympic champion in Munich 72, won the silver medal at the Olympic Games Montreal 76 .The following season, 76/77 , Stal Mielec and Real Madrid met in the knockout phase of the Champions League . Mielec , the Poles lost 1-2 and the second leg , played at the stadium in Valencia by Luis Casanova sanction the white club after attempted assault of 'Loco Bernabeu ' in the first leg of the semifinals disputed the previous season with Bayern , Real Madrid won 1-0 .Poland was eliminated in the second phase of the World Argentina 78 in a group he shared with Peru , Brazil and Argentina , which would be the new world champion . Lato not shine as in the previous World Cup but scored twice .The Malbork played most of his career ( 1966 to 1980) in the Stal Mielec, where he played 295 games and scored 117 goals .In 1980 , he received an attractive offer to play for New York Cosmos , but he

refused and joined Lokeren Belgium where he played for two seasons.Spain in World 82 , accompanied by great players like Boniek , who was third top scorer , and Smolarek , Lato repeated the feat he had achieved eight years before getting another third after 3-2 eliminate France, which , Platini led by the brilliant , had made a spectacular tournament.After a stint in Belgium, went to Mexico to play two seasons at Atlante , where he scored 16 goals in 45 matches.In 1984 , he played his last game as an international match against Belgium , leaving a balance of 45 goals in 100 matches.

The end burned his last rounds in Poland Hamilton, an amateur team based in Ontario , Canada, where he played from 1984 to 1991.Besides the North York Rockets ( Canadian League ) , Olimpia Poznań, Amica Wronki and Widzew Łódź , Lato also trained her beloved Stal Mielec in two stages , the last in the 1996/ 97 season.Between 2001 and 2005 , as a member of the Alliance of the Democratic Left, he was senator of Poland.In October 2008 he was elected president of the Polish Football Association , PZPN .Grzegorz Lato was an extreme fast - is said to be running the 100 meters in 10.2 seconds , and scorer ; a team player who , as Clough himself could see, led to the most successful generation in history of Polish football .