Leonard Franciszek Piątek (born Leonard Franz Piontek, 3 October 1913 – 1 July 1967) was a Polish

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

in the interwar period. In the spring of 1937, he changed his name to Leonard Franciszek Piątek (a Polonized version). A hard-working and ambitious forward, Piątek was the top scorer for Polish first division vice-champions

AKS Chorzów AKS Chorzów is a sports club based in Chorzów, Poland. It is one of the earliest sports organizations in Upper Silesia and is still well known nationally for its football and handball teams. The club also made its mark on the international stag ...

in 1937 and went on to lead the league the following season with 21 goals. He represented the Polish national side on 16 occasions between 1937 and 1939, scoring 11 goals. He scored twice in Poland's 4–0 win over

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in a World Cup qualifier and took part in the legendary

1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the 3rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in France from 4 to 19 June 1938. Italy national ...

match against

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 ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

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 ...

on 5 June 1938, which Brazil won 6–5. Piątek also scored a goal in the last international match played in Poland before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a 4–2 victory over

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

on 27 August 1939. Piątek signed the

Volksliste The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List) was a Nazi Party institution that aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939–1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' ...

( German Nationality List) after the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

invasion of Poland during

which allowed him to continue his footballing career. His club AKS Chorzów was now playing as ''Germania Königshütte'', and with Piątek as their key player, the team dominated the first division ''Gauliga Schlesien'' – part of the German football league system – throughout the early 1940s far outperforming state-supported rivals 1. FC Katowice.http://na-spalonym.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=302&Itemid=326 After the war, he played for AKS Chorzów until the end of the 1947 season, and moved to Pogoń Katowice, where he played from 1948 until 1949.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piatek, Leonard 1913 births 1967 deaths Footballers from Chorzów Footballers from Silesian Voivodeship Sportspeople from the Province of Silesia Men's association football forwards Polish men's footballers Poland men's international footballers AKS Chorzów players Ekstraklasa players 1938 FIFA World Cup players Volksdeutsche Polish football managers Men's association football player-managers 20th-century Polish sportsmen