Grzegorz Lato

Grzegorz Bolesław Lato was born on 8th of April, 1950. He is a retired professional Polish footballer. He was born in Malbork, Poland. He played majority of his club career for Stal Mielec as a winger. He is a former football manager, a politician. He is the only Polish footballer to win the Golden Boot at the World Cup ever.

Debut

He made his senior club debut in the year 1966 representing Stal Mielec at the age of 16. He made his international debut representing Poland in the year 1971.

Rise to glory

Lato led his club Stal Mielec to lift the trophy of the Polish Premier League in the year 1973 and 1976. In the years 1973 and 1975, he was the League's top goal scorer with 13 and 19 goals respectively. He even led his team to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals in the 1975-76 season. He was personally invited by Pelé to represent the New York Cosmos which was later denied by Lato.

He is an excellent right winger who could even play as a forward with his super fast acceleration and awareness. He is a genuine crowd puller on the field. In a world cup group game against Argentina, he scored 2 goals in a 3-2 victory. He was part of the team that won Gold in the 1972 Munich Olympics followed by a Bronze in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Club career

He started his club career at the age of 16 playing for Stal Mielec from the year 1966-1980. He spent majority of his life playing for this club as transfers weren't allowed till ten age of 30. He had 2 year stints with Lokeren and Atlante till 1984. He later represented Polonia Hamilton till 1991.

Records

He scored 117 goals playing for Stal Mielec in 295 appearances. He scored 12 and 16 goals representing Lokeren and Atlante in 64 and 45 appearances respectively. He scored 20 goals in 52 appearances for Polonia Hamilton. He scored 45 goals in 104 appearances representing the Poland national football team.

Retirement

He retired from international football in April, 1984. After retirement, he started his career as a manager in 1988 with the North York Rockets. He successfully managed 5 teams till 1990 before moving away. He was the Senator of Rzeszów holding the office from 2001-05. He became the 25th President of the PZPN holding the office from 30 October 2008 – 26 October 2012.