Jacek Wojciech Gmoch (born 13 January 1939 in

Pruszków Pruszków is a city in east-central Poland, capital of Pruszków County in the Masovian Voivodeship. Pruszków is located along the western edge of the Warsaw metropolitan area. Pruszków is the largest city in the Warsaw metropolitan area outs ...

) 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 ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, and commentator. As a player he spent the majority of his career playing for

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 ...

as a defender, and represented Poland 29 times internationally. After a career ending injury he became a successful trainer, winning multiple titles in Poland, Greece, and Cyprus, while also managing the Poland National Team. While having a successful football career at Legia, he simultaneously graduated in communication from the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

. Gmoch began his career playing for his local childhood club

Znicz Pruszków Miejski Klub Sportowy Znicz Pruszków () is a football (soccer), football club based in Pruszków, Poland. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of the Polish football league system. Players Current squad ...

in 1953. After an impressive spell he earned a move to Legia Warsaw, where he went on to have a successful career playing over 300 games. With Legia, he won the Polish Cup twice (in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

) and contributed to the beginning of the successful Championship winning 1968–69 season. He also became a regular player for the National Team of Poland during this period (29 caps). Following a major injury in a friendly match, Gmoch began his coaching career, starting as assistant manager for

between 1969–71. Achieving another Polish Championship in 1969-70, and reaching the semi-final of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in the same season. While, in 1970-71 Legia finished runner’s up of Poland, and reached the quarter-finals of the European Champions Clubs’ Cup losing to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. Shortly after he was offered the

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

National Team assistant's job by Kazimierz Górski, lasting from 1971–74. Together they achieved an Olympic Gold medal in Munich 1972, as well as 3rd Place in the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

, which to this day are considered to be Poland’s greatest ever football achievements. After the World Cup in 1974 he left the National team and moved to the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

to pursue his scientific career at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

(1975–6). However, he quickly returned to international football in 1976 being offered the coach’s job of the National Team of Poland after Górski left. He managed to qualify for the 1978 Mundial in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

by finishing first in his qualifying group against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. During the World Cup, he reached the second round where ultimately Poland finished 5th in the final rankings, only losing to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and eventual winners and hosts

. After the 1978 World Cup he stepped down from the Poland job, moving to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

where he became one of the most successful and recognised coaches. In Norway, he became the manager of

Skeid Fotball Skeid is a Norway, Norwegian association football, football club from Oslo that currently plays in Norwegian First Division, 1. divisjon the second tier of the Norwegian football league system. Its current home field is Nordre Åsen, after the ...

in 1979, where he saved the team from relegation in his one and only season as head coach. Next, he went to Greece and first worked as a manager of

PAS Giannina PAS Giannina Football Club (), or with its full name Panipirotikós Athlitikós Síllogos Giánnina (, ''Panepirotic Athletic Club Giannina'') is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in the city of Ioannina, the capita ...

between 1979-1981, earning a very respectable 6th place in his first season. He later joined Apollon Athens in 1981-82, and Larisa in 1982-83, where he finished runner up in the Greek league, the first time a provincial team managed this feat. Subsequently, in 1983 he made his big step as a manager and became trainer of Panathinaikos. In his first season as Panathinaikos manager in 1983-84, his team won the Double and the following season in 1984-85, his team finished runner up in the league, and for the second time in their history, reached the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, where they were eliminated by

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. Despite this success, the Panathinaikos management fired him at the end of the season. According to newspapers of the time, one of the reasons he was fired was because he did not tolerate interference in the team by the management. For the 1985–86 season, he became coach of another great Greek club, AEK finishing 3rd, and the following season he again became coach of Larisa. In 1987-88, his team historically won their first and only

Greek Championship 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 repl ...

, until today the only team outside of Athens and Thessaloniki to do so. After Larisa, he worked as the manager of

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, ...

in 1988-89, again finishing as runner up in the league, and

Aris Thessaloniki Athlitikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis, means Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki (), is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club founded on 25 March 1914 in Thessaloniki. Nicknamed ''God of War'', Aris was one of the strongest Greek clubs during t ...

between 1990-91. In 1991 he went to

to become APOEL trainer, where his team won the

Championship 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 ...

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

, and

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

. He remained there until the middle of the 1992-93 season. Later, he worked for Athinaikos ( 1994–95), Ethnikos Piraeus ( 1995–96), APOEL ( 1996-97) winning another Super Cup and qualifying for the UEFA Cup, Ionikos ( 1997–98) finishing a club record 5th place in the league,

Kalamata Kalamata ( ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece after Patras, and the largest city of the Peloponnese (region), homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia regiona ...

( 1998–99) securing promotion to the top flight,

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis''), ...

(1999), and again for Ionikos in 2002–03. After retiring from management he acted as a member of the Polish Olympic representation team in the Athens

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. Later he also became a minor shareholder and President of Legia Warsaw, as well as following up a career in television commentating for several networks. He notably commentated Champions League matches for the Greek Television ERT, as well as International Tournaments in Poland for channels

Polsat Polsat is a Polish free-to-air television channel that was launched on 5 December 1992 by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak. , it is the most watched television channel in Poland with a market share of 11.30% Polsat belongs to Grupa Polsat Plus ( WSE: CP ...

and TVP. On 15 November 2010, Gmoch took over as the caretaker manager of Panathinaikos, following Nikos Nioplias, who resigned after a string of mediocre results in the first part of the 2010–11 season. As caretaker manager he successfully won against Iraklis in his only final match before being succeeded by the new manager of the team, Jesualdo Ferreira. The game ended 4–2, despite Iraklis taking a 0-2 lead in the first half, and when the game ended after managing a heroic comeback the stadium crowd applauded him to thank him for everything he had done for the club.

Managerial statistics

Managerial record by team and tenure

Honours

Player

Legia Warsaw *

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 ...

: 1968-69 *

runner-up:

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

, 1967-68 *

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 ...

: 1964, 1966

Assistant Manager

Legia Warsaw *

: 1969-70 *

runner up: 1970-71 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

Semi Finals: 1969-70 *

Quarter Finals: 1970-71 *

: 1972-73 Poland *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

Gold:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

3rd place:

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Manager

Poland *

5th place:

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

AEL *

Super League Greece 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 ...

: 1987-88 *

runner-up: 1982-83 Panathinaikos *

: 1983-84 *

runner-up: 1984-85 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 1983-84 *

semi-finals: 1984-85 Olympiacos *

runner-up: 1988-89 APOEL *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

: 1991-92 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 1992-93 *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

: 1992-93, 1996–97

References

External links

Znicz Pruszków
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gmoch, Jacek 1939 births Living people People from Pruszków Warsaw University of Technology alumni Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers Polish football managers Polish expatriate football managers Men's association football defenders Znicz Pruszków players Legia Warsaw players Ekstraklasa players Expatriate football managers in Norway Expatriate football managers in Greece PAS Giannina F.C. managers AEK Athens F.C. managers Super League Greece managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Association football chairmen and investors Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. managers Olympiacos F.C. managers Aris Thessaloniki F.C. managers Greek people of Polish descent Panathinaikos F.C. managers 1978 FIFA World Cup managers Poland national football team managers Panionios F.C. managers Ionikos F.C. managers APOEL FC managers Apollon Smyrnis F.C. managers Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Footballers from Masovian Voivodeship Legia Warsaw non-playing staff 20th-century Polish sportsmen