Józef Walczak (born 3 January 1931 – 14 April 2016) was a Polish

football player 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 ...

and

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 ...

. He mainly played for

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, boxing, and in the past ice hockey, ...

during his playing career, made two international appearances 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 ...

between 1954 and 1956, and went on to manage eight different teams.

Football

Walczak started his playing career with his local club

, playing with ŁKS for two seasons, winning promotion in the first season before finishing second in the top division the season after. He moved to

Zawisza Bydgoszcz Zawisza Bydgoszcz () is a sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946. Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th-century knight, Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black). The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, b ...

for two seasons, finishing third with the team in his first season. He returned to ŁKS in 1957, spending the next nine years at the club. He played for ŁKS during their golden years, helping them to their first

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

title in 1958, and lifting the

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 1957, the only time the team have won the competition. In total for ŁKS Łódź, Walczak made a total of 211 games scoring 11 goals. After his playing career, Walczak went on to manage

, Włókniarz Łódź, Włókniarz Pabianice,

Motor Lublin Motor Lublin () is a Polish professional football club based in Lublin. The club was founded in December 1950. Their nickname ''The Yellow, White and Blues'' reflects their official colours. They compete in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Polish ...

Bałtyk Gdynia Bałtyk Gdynia is a Polish football club from Gdynia. The club is named after the Baltic Sea. They currently compete in the IV liga Pomerania, the fifth tier of Polish league competition. History The club was established in 1930 by football e ...

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 ...

Stal Mielec FKS Stal Mielec, commonly known as Stal Mielec (), is a Polish professional football club based in Mielec. The team competes in the I liga, the second level of the Polish football league system. The club was established on 10 April 1939. Histori ...

and Cracovia. His management career saw him finishing second in the

II liga II liga (Druga liga, ), currently named Betclic II liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is a Polish football league that sits at the third tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, ''II Liga'' referre ...

with Lechia in 1978, while achieving a third-place finish in the top division with Stal Mielec in 1982.

Honours

Player

ŁKS Łódź *

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 ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

; runner-up:

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

runner-up: 1953 *

: 1956–57 Zawisza Bydgoszcz * II liga third place: 1955

Manager

Lechia Gdańsk * II liga runner-up: 1977–78 Stal Mielec * Ekstraklasa third place: 1981–82

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walczak, Józef 1931 births 2016 deaths Footballers from Łódź Men's association football defenders Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers ŁKS Łódź players Zawisza Bydgoszcz players Ekstraklasa players I liga players Polish football managers ŁKS Łódź managers Motor Lublin managers Bałtyk Gdynia managers Lechia Gdańsk managers Stal Mielec managers KS Cracovia managers Ekstraklasa managers I liga managers 20th-century Polish sportsmen