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Warsaw's National Stadium to be named after iconic soccer coach

07.10.2021 11:30
Warsaw's landmark National Stadium is set to be named after former Poland football boss Kazimierz Górski, who led the national team during its glory days in the 1970s, officials have announced.
Kazimierz Górski, pictured in May 1974.
Kazimierz Górski, pictured in May 1974.Photo: PAP/Chris Niedenthal

The high-profile ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, follows a series of tributes earlier this year during which officials and fans commemorated Górski on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Amid an escalating epidemic, Poland is preparing to open its first field hospital to treat coronavirus patients at the National Stadium in Warsaw, officials confirmed on Monday. The National Stadium in Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański

Górski is widely remembered as the most successful and most respected coach in Polish football history.

He died in 2006 at the age of 85.

Kazimierz Górski (front) and former Poland players Jerzy Gorgoń, Jan Domarski and Jan Tomaszewski; Oct. 18, 1973. Kazimierz Górski (front) and former Poland players Jerzy Gorgoń, Jan Domarski and Jan Tomaszewski; Oct. 18, 1973. Photo: PAP/PA Archive

Polish President Andrzej Duda in April laid a wreath on Górski's grave at the Powązki cemetery in Warsaw, saying that the national team "achieved real victories under his wing."

In another tribute, officials led by Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński opened an exhibition about Górski and his legacy at the Polish capital's Sports Museum.

Górski was born on March 2, 1921 in the then-Polish city of Lwów, now Lviv in Ukraine. He managed the national team from 1970 to 1976.

He was in charge when Poland won gold during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, when they finished third in the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, and when they grabbed silver in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

After 1976, Górski coached Panathinaikos and Olympiacos in Greece before returning to Poland to manage Legia Warsaw, where he had started out as a player.

After the fall of communism in 1989, he took charge of Poland's soccer association PZPN, which he headed from 1991 to 1995 and was then its honorary president until his death in Warsaw on May 23, 2006.

(gs)

Source: PAP