Włodzimierz 'Włodek' Leonard Lubański (Polish pronunciation: ; born 28 February 1947 in Gliwice-Sośnica) is a former Polish football striker, the second all-time highest goal scorer for the Polish national team. For his national team, Lubański amassed 75 caps between 1963 and 1980, scoring 48 goals and being the second highest goalscorer in Poland's football history behind

Robert Lewandowski Robert Lewandowski (; born 21 August 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Poland national team. Recognised for his positioning, technique and finishing, Lewandowski is co ...

Life and career

Born in

Gliwice Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capi ...

in 1947, he started his football career at the age of ten in

Sośnica Gliwice Sośnica Gliwice is a Polish women's handball team, based in Gliwice. See also * Handball in Poland * Sports in Poland Poland's sports include almost all sporting disciplines, in particular: football (the most popular sport), volleyball, ...

junior team. Between 1958–1962, he was part of the GKS Gliwice junior squad and in 1963 he started playing football professionally in

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Po ...

. He won the Polish Championship seven tiems with Górnik Zabrze in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1971 and 1972. Between 1975–1982, he played in KSC Lokeren and subsequently between 1982–1983 in

Valenciennes FC Valenciennes Football Club (; commonly known as Valenciennes or USVA) is a French association football club based in Valenciennes. The club was founded in 1913 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Valenciennes pla ...

. He won gold medal at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in the men's football team competition with Poland. In 1972, he was awarded the title of

Merited Master of Sport of the USSR Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR (russian: Единая Всесоюзная спортивная классификация) is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for both athletes an ...

. He participated at the 1978 FIFA World Cup finishing fifth with the Polish national team. Lubański was vice-chairman at

Polonia Warszawa Polonia Warsaw ( pl, Polonia Warszawa, ), founded on 19 November 1911, is the oldest existing Varsovian sports club, best known for its football and basketball teams. It also has track and field, swimming, chess, mountain biking, and contract ...

for three months. Lubański is the youngest scorer in the history of the European Cup (now known as the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

), netting for Polish outfit

against Czech side

Dukla Prague Dukla Prague ( cz, Dukla Praha) was a Czechoslovakia, Czech association football, football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in ...

in the leg of their tie in the first round of the competition on 13 November 1963, aged 16 years and 258 days. In 1997, he received the Officer's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievement ...

for his "outstanding contributions to the development of sport in Poland". In 2015, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Personal life

In 1968, he married Grażyna (''née'' Loreto) with whom he has two children: a son Michał and a daughter Małgorzata. Lubański is the subject of a number of books including ''Ja, Lubański'' by Krzysztof Wyrzykowski (1990), ''Włodek Lubański. Legenda polskiego futbolu'' by Włodzimierz Lubański and Przemysław Słowiński (2008) and ''Życie jak dobry mecz'' by Włodzimierz Lubański and Michał Olszański (2016).

Career statistics

Internationals goals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubanski, Wlodzimierz 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from Gliwice Polish footballers Poland international footballers UEFA Golden Players Górnik Zabrze players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Valenciennes FC players Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Poland 1978 FIFA World Cup players Olympic gold medalists for Poland Ekstraklasa players Belgian First Division A players Quimper Kerfeunteun F.C. players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Polish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in France Olympic medalists in football Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Polish football managers K.R.C. Mechelen managers K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen managers Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Association football forwards PAS Giannina F.C. managers