Position on the pitch: defender, stopper. Height/weight: 182 cm/weight: 75 kg.

Clubs in career: Silesia Lubomia (until 1962, youth teams), Unia Racibórz (62-67, youth teams and seniors), Odra Wodzisław (67-69), Ruch Chorzów (70), Stal Mielec (autumn 70), Piast Gliwice (71-74), Wisła (Vistula) Garfield (USA, 75), Hartford Bicentennials (USA – NASL, 75), Legia Warsaw (75-77), Los Angeles Aztecs (USA – NASL, 78), Oakland Stompers (USA – NASL, 78), San Jose Earthquakes (USA – NASL, 78), SpVgg Fürth (FRG, 80-82), VfR Coburg (FRG, 82).

Coach: VfR Coburg (RFN, 1983), ASV Forth (RFN, 84-87), Eintracht Süd Nürnberg (RFN, 87-88), FC Herzogenaurach (RFN, 88), Altay Izmir (Turkey, 89), Konyaspor (Turkey, 92), FV Wendelstein (Germany, 93), Stal Mielec (25.10.1993-16.04.95), Widzew Łódź (95-98), Wisła Kraków (98-99), Legia Warszawa (99-01), Wisła Kraków (01-02), Widzew Łódź (02), Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski (03), Widzew Łódź (03, 04), Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus, 04), Odra Wodzisław Śląski (04-05), Zagłębie Lubin (05-06), Lech Poznań (06-09), Zagłębie Lubin (09), Polish national team (09-12), Jahn Regensburg (Germany, 13), Wisła Kraków (13-15), Górnik Łęczna (16-17), Widzew Łódź (17-18), Górnik Łęczna (18-19), Wieczysta Kraków (21-22).

Franciszek Smuda – a Silesian with a rather peculiar character – came to Mielec just after Stal’s promotion to the Premier League in the autumn of 1970. He came from Ruch from Chorzów, where he only trained, and it was in the blue and white jersey that he made his debut (23.08.1970, Stal Rzeszów – Stal Mielec 3-0) in the top division. He only managed to play six games in the league and one in the Polish Cup (31.10.1970, ŁKS Łódź – Stal Mielec 2-0), which proved to be his farewell to our team. Remembered by his teammates as a player with a good head game and good ball reception.

After three years playing for second-league Piaście Gliwice, he emigrated to the USA, where, in the early years, in addition to playing for Wisła Garfield of Poland, he had to earn his living by manual labour. He was brought to Poland, and to the capital city itself, by Andrzej Strejlau himself. Smuda was offered a job at Warsaw’s Legia and he took it, playing there for three seasons (76-78, 33 games, no goals). He later emigrated overseas again, playing for three different clubs in the local NASL (1978) before ending up in the Federal Republic of Germany, where he hung up his football boots in the country’s lower leagues in 1982.

I was just an ordinary kicker,” he said years later. Even then, he was drawn to coaching, graduating from the famous Cologne coaching school. In the country of our western neighbours, he obtained local citizenship and initially took up coaching small German clubs. He came into contact with first division football again in distant Turkey, where he coached Altay Izmir (1989) and Konyaspor (1992).

The original job offer – Franz – as he was called in our country, was offered a job in nearby… Tarnobrzeg. However, it was thanks to the efforts of Steel’s activists, together with the later manager of our club Edward Socha, that also a short while later he managed to persuade the German sponsor from Nuremberg – Thomas Mertel – to invest in the blue-and-white club.

In the colours of FKS from the very first classes with our players, you could feel his iron German hand. There was no shortage of linguistic lapses, broken by Polish mixed with German. Sometimes our footballers could not understand him. Sharp words were uttered, among others: “Weiter, weiter” or the more comical “friends” and “ful, pul”.

Together with Jan Złomańczuk, who helped him as second coach, he disciplined the team, which remained in the Premier League in the spring of 1994. At the time, Stal, boosted by reinforcements from Silesia (Bogusław Cygan), Rzeszów (Paweł Kloc, Rafał Domarski) and abroad (Aleksandr Spiwak), was a team that was physically well-prepared for league battles, and there was no denying the Mielec players’ commitment to the fight for the ball. A novelty for the Polish players was certainly the so-called ” warm-up ” , when, after returning by coach in the morning from distant trips , coach Smuda ordered the players to run a few laps in the woods around the nearby Polski Hotel.

He made his debut (30.10.1993, Polonia Warszawa – Stal Mielec 1-1) and ended his tenure (15.04.1995, Warta Poznań – Stal Mielec 2-0) at our club with away matches. The reason for his resignation at Mielec was reportedly the unsportsmanlike attitude of some of the players of the Mielec eleven in the home match (08.04.1995) against Legia Warszawa (1-2). The extra-class balance at Mielec Steel as a coach is: 44 matches (13 victories, 16 draws, 15 defeats), goals: 50-52. In the Polish Cup 3 matches (2 victories, 1 defeat), goals: 6-3 / penalty 5-4/.

So, as you can see, in the financially and personnel-heavy times at our club, his charges generally tried to play offensive football, achieving, among others, spectacular victories (Siarka Tarnobrzeg 3-0, Wisła Kraków 4-0, Polonia Warszawa 3-0, Raków Częstochowa 4-0, Ruch Chorzów 4-2), sometimes interspersed with high defeats on away goals (Legia Warszawa 0-3, Górnik Zabrze 0-5, Stomil Olsztyn 1-4).

From Mielec he soon found his way to Widzew, where he achieved his greatest successes (twice the Polish Championship 1996 and 1997, the Polish Super Cup 1996, the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 1996/97). When he was already coaching RTS players, he was particularly remembered by our most ardent fans from sector no .5 (memorably throwing snowballs at him) and the sentence he uttered in their direction – You, I’m about to give you. Raspberries you would plant here, you.

His later coaching career in our country is well known to football enthusiasts. He worked, among others, with Wisła Kraków (Polish Championship 1999, Polish Super Cup 2001), Lech Poznań (Polish Cup 2009), foreign teams Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus) and Jahn Regensburg (Germany). He also got the chance to work with the Polish National Team (2009-12), which, however, ended with the unsuccessful EURO 2012. His last coaching stop was Wieczysta Kraków (2021-22). When news broke a few days ago that Franciszek Smuda had been admitted to hospital, as a result of blood cancer, no one certainly expected him to leave this world today…