- 17.12.1947 Rudnik n/San – 04.07.2022 Junction Village (Melbourne area, Australia)
Position on the pitch: striker (left winger), left midfielder. Nicknames: “Sick”, “Hockey”, “Sekul”. Clubs in career: Unia Nowa Sarzyna (until 67), Stal Mielec (67/68-autumn 76), Chemik Pustków (spring 77), Siarka Tarnobrzeg (spring 77-77/78), Maribyrnong Polonia Soccer Club Melbourne (79-8?, Australia).
Ryszard Sekulski came to Mielec in mid-1967 as a talented striker (his older brother Tadeusz Sekulski also played in the Union attack with Rajmund Kapuscinski, among others) from Unia Nowa Sarzyna. He was a left-footed player, with unconventional dribbling and a good pass. Due to his innate, natural abilities, he played a lot and hit the ball with the outside part of his foot, which received a strange rotation. In those days, this was a rarity in the first division, and many goalkeepers had problems after such unsignalled shots, not expecting that a goal could be scored from such difficult positions. Loved by the fans, not very fast, he was nevertheless able to twist opponents on the left side of the pitch in such a way as to leave them behind. He was not fond of playing defensively. Nor was he a titan of training, from which he was one of the first to go down. Despite shunning the masseur, he missed injuries throughout his career. A recluse type, apart from tolerating Per and Hnati, off the pitch he had no close contact with anyone, hardly ever coming to any events organised by the club. In his private life he was an excellent fisherman, able to come straight from the water to the club with a bucket of fish. A good mushroom picker, not bad in the kitchen. He was very fond of cycling and did not own a car. With his patronage, Władysław Paul, the top scorer in the 3rd league, came to Mielec in the spring of 1969, but he did not manage to acclimatise here. He worked his way up the ladder with Zala from the 3rd to the 1st league, winning the Polish championship twice (1973, 19776).
He is Stal’s top scorer (together with Witold Karas) in European Cups, in which he scored 3 goals. He made his debut for Stal on 19.11.1967, Stal-Unia Oświęcim 2-0. His league appearances for Stal were 180 games – 40 goals (128 games – 21 goals in the 1st league; 17 games – 3 goals in the 2nd league; 35 games – 16 goals in the 3rd league). In the Polish Cup: 20 games – 3 goals (4 games – 1 goal in the county); in European Cups: 10 matches – 3 goals; in the Intertoto Cup: 9 matches – 2 goals. His last game in Mielec was a match played on 28.11.1976, Stal – Ruch Chorzów 1-1. After leaving Stal and an episode in nearby Chemik Pustków, he was sent for a season and a half to Tarnobrzeg’s Siarki, from which he left as far away as Australia (for many years he gave no sign of life, nor did he keep in touch with his family; twice in the 1990s and in this century, information about his death reached me, but was not confirmed), where he found himself in the Melbourne-based Polish club Maribyrnong Polonia SC, in which Edmund Zientara, a former player in that team, had his connections. One of his best matches at Stala was the duel on 16 August 1970 (just after Stala were promoted back to League 1), in which he scored the only winning goal for Bytom Polonia. He is remembered in Mielec for his prolonged exchanges of balls with his left foot (long distance) together with coach Zientara, which sometimes allowed other Stali players to have more slack in training. In the recent memories of Adam Popowicz and Witold Karas, among others, he remained as a player of immense, but not fully exploited footballing potential...
01.08.1971 – Borås (Sweden). Excerpt from the match between Elfsborg Borås and Stal Mielec (white jerseys) in the Intertoto Cup ending in a 0-1 win for the Mielecs. centre Ryszard Sekulski.
WE REMEMBER!!!
Leszek Śledziona
Photo: Archive of Leszek Śledziona and Izabela Sekulska.
