Janusz Bogdan Kupcewicz (9 December 1955 – 4 July 2022) was a Polish 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Widely regarded as one of the best Polish players of his era, he most notably won the bronze with the national team at

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, in which he was a key player with his final goal being instrumental in the success. He was voted in

Arka Gdynia Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia () is a professional football club based in Gdynia, Poland, that plays in the Ekstraklasa after winning the 2024–25 I liga. The club was founded as Klub Sportowy Gdynia in 1929. History The h ...

's best all-time XI after winning their first ever

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 ...

in 1979. He then went on to win the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

with

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

in 1983. He played for a number of other clubs, including abroad, and after retirement from playing he was a manager, PE teacher, and local politician.

Career

Club career

Despite being from

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, he started his career at the two

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

clubs: Warmia and Stomil, having gone through the youth teams at the former. He then returned to his native Gdańsk and spent 8 seasons at

having arrived there in 1974. The following season, 1975–76, he was the Second Division's top scorer. With Arka he achieved a historic club first

in 1979. This success, along with his national team exploits, earned him a transfer to

, where he also won a historic national title in 1983. He then moved abroad to France to play for AS Saint-Etienne, with the transfer fee raised privately to the sum of €380 000. He stayed there for 2 seasons (1983–1985), however they were relegated from the Premier Division in 1984. He spent the 1985–86 season at Greek club

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

. However his time abroad was plagued by injuries. He returned to his hometown and joined

Lechia The ethnonyms for the Poles (people) and Poland (their country) include endonyms (the way Polish people refer to themselves and their country) and exonyms (the way other peoples refer to the Poles and their country). Endonyms and most exonyms ...

where he stayed for the next two seasons. This caused controversies given his links and allegiance to bitter derby rivals Arka. He suffered relegation with Lechia in 1989. He finished his playing career at Turkish club

Adanaspor Adanaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional Association football, football club based in Adana; currently, they play in the TFF First League. The club was founded in 1954 by middle-class merchants and artisans in response to their perceived ali ...

International career

In his career he earned overall 20

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for the Poland national team, scoring 5 goals. He made his national debut in 1976. He was at the

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 ...

tournament as a reserve player, but by the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 in th ...

he was a key member of the squad, with Poland finishing in third place. The third place was won thanks to his famous winning goal against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to make it 3–2.

Managerial career

After retiring from playing, he became the manager of the Poland national futsal team in the early 90s. He then went on to coach the then sixth division

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

n club Radunia Stężyca between 1996 and 1999, the Polish U-21 team as assistant manager 1999–2001, briefly

Lechia Gdańsk Lechia Gdańsk () is a Polish football (soccer), football club based in Gdańsk. As of the 2025–26 Ekstraklasa, 2025–26 season, they compete in the Ekstraklasa. The club was founded in 1945 by people Polish population transfers (1944–1946 ...

in 1995, and between 2004 and 2005 lower league Cartusia Kartuzy. He was also a consultant at

between 2001 and 2003. He returned to Arka as a consultant once more in 2012, alongside Tomasz Korynt.

Teaching career

He taught PE at

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

number 10 in the Chylonia district of Gdynia.

Political career

He was a Gdynia City Council candidate on the

Civic Platform The Civic Platform (, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a Centre-right politics, centre-right liberal conservative political party in Poland. Since ...

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

in 2006 and a

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

candidate in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. Then, having switched to the

Polish People's Party The Polish People's Party (, PSL) is a conservative political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although its name was changed to the pre ...

, he ran as a candidate for the Pomeranian Voivodeship Assembly in 2010 and to the lower house of parliament in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. In 2014, he became a regional councillor, his only electoral success. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, he unsuccessfully ran for the Sejm again. In 2018 he did not renew his councillor seat mandate.

Personal life, death and legacy

Kupcewicz's father, Aleksander, and his brother,

Zbigniew Zbigniew () is a Polish masculine given name, originally Zbygniew . This West Slavic name is derived from the Polish elements ''Zby-'' (from ''zbyć, zbyć się, or pozbyć się'', meaning "to dispel", "to get rid of") and ''gniew'', meaning "ang ...

, were also both professional footballers. Late in his life, Kupcewicz was in deteriorating health, leading to his death due to a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

on 3 July 2022 at the age of 66. He was reported to have fallen ill while travelling by train and fainted on the train platform in

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

; an ambulance then transported him to a hospital in

where he subsequently died. His diabetes and related cardiovascular complications were cited as likely contributors to his death.

Zbigniew Boniek Zbigniew Kazimierz Boniek (; born 3 March 1956) is a Polish former association football, footballer and manager as well as a current UEFA vice-president. A former midfielder, who was also capable of playing mostly as a right winger and Forward ( ...

called him one of the best ever Polish playmakers.

Grzegorz Lato Grzegorz Bolesław Lato (Polish pronunciation: ; born 8 April 1950) is a Polish former professional association football, football player and manager who played as a winger (association football), winger. He was a member of Poland's golden gene ...

stated he was incredibly saddened and shocked at the news of his death as they only spoke recently and that they were very close friends in regular contact with each other. His winning goal in

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

against

at the

to win the bronze medal for

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 ...

was deemed to be his highlight of his career. Regarded as an exceptionally talented player, he was judged to have never reached his full potential due to persistent injuries during his playing career. His involvement in the infamous Polish football corruption scandal was never fully explained; he never denied the allegations that he handled and transported bribes, but claimed in court he was far too drunk to remember the exact details. He is widely regarded as

's best-ever players, featuring in their all-time XI, Arka being a club he personally supported.

Honours

Arka Gdynia *

: 1978–79 Lech Poznań *

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 ...

: 1982–83 Poland *

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 ...

third place:

Individual * Second Division top scorer: 1975–76 * All time best Arka Gdynia XI

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kupcewicz, Janusz 1955 births 2022 deaths Footballers from Gdańsk Polish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Poland men's international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players 1982 FIFA World Cup players Ekstraklasa players I liga players Ligue 1 players Super League Greece players Süper Lig players Arka Gdynia players Lech Poznań players AS Saint-Étienne players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players Lechia Gdańsk players Adanaspor footballers Polish football managers Lechia Gdańsk managers I liga managers Polish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Polish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Polish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Polish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Polish sportsperson-politicians 20th-century Polish sportsmen