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Polish footballer Włodzimierz Smolarek dies aged 54

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

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Smolarek (behind flag) played for the Polish national team 60 times
Image: Zureks.

Włodzimierz Smolarek, a former Polish international footballer, has died aged 54 years. According to today's announcement by the Polish Football Association (Polish FA), the cause of death is unknown. He was capped 60 times for the Polish national team and was a member of the 1982 FIFA World Cup squad that came third.

"It's hard for me to imagine. Wlodek was my friend, a buddy from the field", said Polish FA President Grzegorz Lato, a former team mate of Smolarek. "He was the team's good spirit."

Zbigniew Boniek, another one of Smolarek's team mates, spoke about his death saying "We played so many games together in Widzew or with the white eagle on a Polish shirt, it is such a shame". He is the first member of the 1982 team to die.

He also played with Widzew Lodz and Legia Warsaw. He won the Polish league title with Lodz twice. He scored 65 goals in 199 games in the top flight of Polish football. He spent time playing in Germany and the Netherlands before becoming a coach, and a Polish FA youth scout.

His son Ebi Smolarek is also a footballer, having played for the ADO Den Haag and Bolton Wanderers as well as the Polish national team.

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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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