Dariusz Szpakowski (born 15 May 1951 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) is a popular

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

, working for the ''

Polish Television Television in Poland was Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, introduced on an experimental basis in 1937. It was state owned, and was interrupted by the Second World War in 1939. Television returned to Poland in 1952 and for ...

''. He also used to work for the ''Polish Radio''. Szpakowski, a graduate of Warsaw's Jan Zamoyski High School and Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, began his career in sports journalism after playing basketball 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 ...

during his teenage years. Specializing in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, he has provided commentary for major international events, including the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

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 ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

, as well as matches featuring the Polish National Team and the

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 ...

. He is uniquely recognized as the only sports commentator globally to have attended twelve World Cups, providing commentary for matches from 1978 to 2022. On 23 May 2024, he informed that he was joining the ''

Kanał Zero ''Kanał Zero'' (Polish for "Channel Zero") is a Polish general-interest YouTube channel founded on 24 October 2023 by Krzysztof Stanowski, officially launched on 1 February 2024. The channel has garnered over 1.98 million subscribers and accumul ...

'' team for a permanent collaboration to host programs about the matches he had worked on.

References

1951 births Living people Journalists from Warsaw Sports commentators Recipients of the Silver Cross of Merit (Poland) {{pl-journo-stub