The Football Tragic

A degree in history, with a bit of student activism thrown in. A brief but prominent role in one of the finest international teams of the era. A head-on clash with the Communist authorities. An attempt to re-create the famous Solidarity movement in the football arena. Stardom, and a mountainload of goals, in America. Becoming a team-mate of Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Neeskens, among others. Two on-field encounters with Diego Maradona, in very different circumstances. An autobiography entitled "Pelé, Boniek and Me".

You certainly couldn't say that Stanislaw "Stan" Terlecki had an uneventful life. And yet few remember him nowadays, outside of a proud mining town in America which once boasted an equally proud football team.

The son of two university academics, Stanislaw Terlecki (pronounced "Terletski") was born in Warsaw on November 13, 1955. His father was a history professor and the young Stanislaw followed in his father's footsteps in that respect, gaining a degree in the discipline, and a student's taste for rebellion. He was a dissident from a young age. He came from a family of Kresowiaks - "borderlanders" from the former Polish territories which were subsumed into the Soviet Union after the invasion of 1939 - and his father had vivid memories of the mass deportations that accompanied that very dark period in Polish history.

But young Stanislaw also had a notable talent for football, and was playing in the Polish first division at the tender age of 18. By 1976 he had graduated to the national side; no small feat in an era when Polish football was at its peak. He was that rarity, a footballer with a reputation as a genuine intellectual; in interviews, he would name-check James Joyce in between talking about the game. Apparently his footballing peers considered him a little, well, stuck-up. Not to mention disrespectful towards his elders. But no-one doubted his talent: a left-sided midfielder with superb ball control and a fine shot, he was being lined up as the replacement for the renowned Robert Gadocha. He was tipped to shine at the 1978 World Cup, along with other young Polish stars such as Zbigniew Boniek and Adam Nawalka.

Terlecki scored twice in the qualifying series for 1978, including a memorable goal against Cyprus. Moreover, the new Polish coach, Jacek Gmoch, believed that Terlecki's domination of the highly-rated Benfica fullback Artur was a decisive factor in Poland's crucial win away to Portugal in the qualifiers. Gmoch was well aware that he had a major talent on his hands...but a delicate flower as well. "You had to have a lot of patience with Stas. He liked to be listened to, you had to let him express his opinion. An intellectual, you know..."

Gmoch's patience eventually won the youngster's loyalty, and Terlecki was an integral part of the coach's plans for Argentina in 1978. But he missed out on the tournament itself - and thereby hangs a tale. A tale of the cockiness which went with Terlecki's rebellious nature, and which often got him into trouble.

Playing for his club side LKS Lodz in a late-season dead rubber against Polonia Bytom, Terlecki was, well, making life a misery for his hapless marker Czeslaw Brylka. Unfortunately, he decided to taunt the Bytom defender as well. Incensed, Brylka launched into a horrendous tackle which landed the 22-year-old Terlecki with a serious knee injury, and ended his hopes of going to Argentina. "I cried like a baby, like a boy who'd had his favourite toy taken away," recalled Terlecki many years later. "I'd sacrificed so much for that trip to the World Cup."

Terlecki recovered well from his injury, and quickly found his way back into the national side post-1978. But within a couple of years he was out of reckoning for the national team for good - thanks to his leading role in an infamous incident. More in Part 2.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 2:02 PM