Ryszard Leon Piec (born Richard Leon Pietz; 17 August 1913 – 24 January 1979) 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 dorward. Piec spent his entire career in his native town of Lipiny, which now today is a district of Świętochłowice, in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

. He played for

Naprzód Lipiny ŚKS Naprzód Lipiny is a sports club from Świętochłowice's district of Lipiny (Upper Silesia, Poland), founded in 1920 by Alfons Maniura, who became Naprzód's first chairman. Throughout the years, the club changed its name many times. Fro ...

, a team which, in spite of several attempts, never managed to qualify to the

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 ...

. From 1935 to 1939 he represented Poland in 24 matches, scoring five goals. His debut took place in a 2–3 friendly loss to

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 ...

on 18 August 1935. He participated in

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

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, where Poland was placed on the 4th position, after losing 2–3 to

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. During the Olympics, he played in three games, a 3–0 qualifier win 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 ...

, a 5–4 quarter-victory over

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and a 1–3 semi-final loss to

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. He also took part in a memorable

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

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, lost 5–6. During the

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, German occupiers allowed Upper Silesians to participate in sports tournaments. Piec's club, Naprzód Lipiny, was forced to change its name to Turn und Sport (TUS) Lipine. Ryszard (then known as Richard Pietz), together with his brother Wilhelm Piec, was a key player in this team. In the 1941–42 season of

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

, TUS Lipine with Piec brothers was a sensation. In the third round, the Silesians beat

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4–1, then in the following round, TUS Lipine defeated Blau-Weiss 90 by the same margin. In the semifinals however, professionals from

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's association football, football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football league system ...

proved to be too strong, beating TUS 6–0. After the war, Piec continued his career in Naprzód Lipiny until 1951. Following retirement, he became a coach.

References

1913 births 1979 deaths Footballers from Świętochłowice Sportspeople from the Province of Silesia Men's association football forwards Polish men's footballers I liga players Poland men's international footballers Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Poland 1938 FIFA World Cup players 20th-century Polish sportsmen {{Poland-footy-forward-1910s-stub